Mowry
A surname most likely tied to a place-name meaning “plain” or “level country,” with spelling variants including Mowrey and Moy.
The #6,989 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,416 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually explained as coming from an Irish place-name, probably from a word for a plain or level stretch of land. The excerpt equates Mowry with forms glossed as “the plain” or “level country,” suggesting a topographic origin rather than a personal trait. In that reading, the name would originally have identified someone from, or living near, such a place.
History
Mowry appears in North America in several spelling forms, especially Mowry and Mowrey. The name is uncommon, and in historical surname collections it is treated alongside similar Irish forms such as Moy and Moyer. Because the evidence here is brief and somewhat compressed, the exact Irish source form is not fully secure.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same historical source treats Mowry as essentially the same name as Moy, both linked to the idea of a level or plain-like landscape.
From the historical record
“Mowrey. Mag, plain ; rig, of king. The plain of the king. Mowry, the same. Moy. Mag, sometimes pronounced moy, a level country. Moyer. Mag, the level country ; er for fear, a man. A man of the level country.”
— Family Names from the Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and Scotch