How popular is Gemma? Gemma is a very popular first name for females (#1711 out of 4276, Top 40%) and also a very popular surname for both adults and children (#28049 out of 150436, Top 19%). (2000 U.S. CENSUS)
Chomsky and Gould hypothesize that language may have evolved simply because the physical structure of the brain evolved, or because cognitive structures that were used for things like tool making or rule learning were also good for complex communication.
A significant influence on the shaping of Middle English came from contact with the North Germanic languages spoken by the Scandinavians who conquered and colonised parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries; this contact led to much lexical borrowing and grammatical simplification.