Stowers
A pluralized surname from Stower, usually understood as a place-based name with English local roots.
The #5,239 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,379 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Stowers is generally treated as a plural form of the surname Stower. In older surname study, Stower is usually taken as a local or place-based name, though the exact original place-name behind it is not always certain. The ending -s can mark descent or family belonging, so Stowers likely began as “the Stower family” or “sons of Stower.”
History
The name is recorded in English surname collections as a pluralized form, and later reference works continue to connect it with Stower. In the United States it survives in modest numbers, reflecting ordinary English surname transmission rather than a single famous line. Because the base surname Stower itself is not always securely explained, some of the deeper origin remains uncertain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname dictionary explicitly glosses STOWERS as “a pluralization of Stower.”
From the historical record
“shire are so called. STOWERS. A pluralization of Stower. STRACEY. Tlie baronets Strachey and Stracey both derive from the county of Essex, in the sixteenth century, and bear similar arms. Tlie names are probably identical, and derived from a local source. STRACHAISr. A parish in Kincardine- shire. STRACHEY. See…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom