Bowie
A surname with more than one likely origin, most often linked either to a bow-maker or to a Gaelic nickname for a yellow-haired person.
The #3,039 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,196 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained in two ways. In English records, Bardsley treats it as an occupational name from "bowyer," meaning a maker or seller of bows, with the extra -ie spelling developing in the usual way seen in some other surnames. In Gaelic contexts, the name may reflect a descriptive nickname from a word for "yellow" or "fair-haired," which is why some older writers group it with names like Boyd and Dow.
History
The name is found in both English and Scottish settings, and older surname dictionaries do not agree on a single source for every family. In Scotland and Ireland, some bearers may belong to the Gaelic descriptive group, while in England the occupational explanation is often favored. The surname later became especially well known through famous bearers such as David Bowie, which helped make the spelling widely familiar.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The spelling Bowie can mislead modern readers: in surname history it is often unrelated to the famous knife and may instead point to a bow-maker or a fair-haired ancestor.
From the historical record
“Araw tkJ Bowie, 137a : P. T. Yorka. p. 36. (a) Occup. 'the bowyer.' The y has crept in as in lawyer, sawyer, &C. In the Order of the Procession”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances