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The bowman Surname

bowman Name Meaning and History

  1. English and Scottish: occupational name for an archer, Middle English bow(e)man, bouman (from Old English boga ‘bow’ + mann ‘man’). This word was distinguished from Bowyer, which denoted a maker or seller of the articles. It is possible that in some cases the surname referred originally to someone who untangled wool with a bow. This process, which originated in Italy, became quite common in England in the 13th century. The vibrating string of a bow was worked into a pile of tangled wool, where its rapid vibrations separated the fibers, while still leaving them sufficiently entwined to produce a fine, soft yarn when spun.
  2. Americanized form of German Baumann (see Bauer) or the Dutch cognate Bouman.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The bowman name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the bowman family name as far back in history as possible.

bowman Family Facts

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Distribution of bowman Families in the US in 1920
Number of bowman families
 827-1652
 276-826		 1-275
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
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