Flowers
A surname with several possible roots, most likely from a place-name or from the word for flowers itself.
The #578 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 5,365 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is not straightforwardly one thing: historical writers connect it either with the word for flowers or with place-names such as Fleurus in Flanders or Flers in Normandy. In some cases it may also reflect a French or Dutch personal or place-name form, such as Floris or Florus, later Anglicized as Flowers. Because the early evidence points in more than one direction, the exact origin can vary by family line.
History
English bearers appear in medieval and early modern records, and later surname scholars noted both native-looking and immigrant-looking forms. In Britain and America, Flowers also spread widely as an established hereditary surname, with different branches likely having different origins. Some families may descend from Norman or Huguenot bearers rather than from an English nickname or descriptive term.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname writers were already warning that not every name that looks like a nature word actually began that way—Flowers is a good example.
From the historical record
“bearer. FLOWERS. See Flower. FLOYD. The same as Flood, which see. FOL FLOYER. Burke says, that the pedigree of tlie Floyers of co. Dorset is " authenti- cally deduced from Floierus, who settled soon after the Norman Conciucst on the”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom