Bower
A name that can point to a bower, chamber, or a person who worked in a lord’s private rooms.
The #1,682 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 14,397 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bower is most often linked to Old English bur, meaning a private room, chamber, or dwelling place. In surname use, it likely began as a topographic or occupational name for someone associated with the bower of a manor house, such as a chamber servant or attendant. Some historical writers also connect it with the general sense of “dweller in or by the bower,” rather than a single fixed job title.
History
Early surname forms were variously written with spellings like de la Bore, Atte Bore, and similar French-influenced forms in medieval records. Later English surname traditions also treated Bower as related to chamber service in great households. The name has remained in use in England and elsewhere, and it is also sometimes confused with Bowyer, a separate occupational surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older English household vocabulary included the phrase “ladye’s bower,” which helped keep this surname’s original sense alive in later explanations.
From the historical record
“Sometimes they call me John ; But when I'm in my father's bower Jock Randal is my name. — 'The Bonny Hind,' 25-28 ; Child, yol. ii.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)