Bowden
Usually a place-based surname, originally meaning someone from Bowden or a similar “bowed hill” place-name.
The #1,450 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 12,571 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bowden is generally explained as a locational surname, referring to a person from a place called Bowden or Bowdon. The place-name is commonly taken from Old English elements meaning “bowed” or “curved” plus “hill,” so the original sense was something like “curved hill” or “bent hill.” Some older writers also connected the name with Bodin or other unrelated-looking forms, but the place-name explanation is the one most consistently supported in the historical surname literature.
History
The surname appears in English records by the late medieval and early modern period, especially in the Midlands and northern counties. One early family tradition linked the Bowdens of Bowdon Hall with Norman descent, but that was already being treated cautiously by later surname writers. The name also spread beyond England: records note Protestant Walloon settlers named Bowden in Rye in 1572.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century Cornish writer thought some Cornish Bowden/Bawden forms might be local or dialectal variants rather than the same origin everywhere, showing how surname origins can diverge by region.
From the historical record
“BOWCHER, See Bourchier and Butcher. BOWDEN. BOAVDON. The B.'s. were of Bowdon Hall, co. Derby, in the XV. cent. Yet they have a tradition tliat they are of Norman descent, and that the name was originally Bodin. In 1572 two protestant Walloons, Nich. and John Bow- den, settled at R3-e. Lansd. MS. 15. 70. BOWDITCH.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom