English: metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of
bows, from Middle English bow (Old English boga, from
bugan ‘to bend’). Before the invention of gunpowder, the bow
was an important long-range weapon for shooting game as well as in
warfare. Boga is also found as a personal name in Old English,
and it is possible that this survived into Middle English and so may
lie behind the surname in some instances. In other cases (for example,
Richard atte Bowe, 1306), the name is topographic, from the
same word in the transferred sense ‘arched bridge’, ‘river bend’, an
allusion to their similarity in shape to a drawn bow.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Buadhaigh (see
Bogue).
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
97,345
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Bow
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.com.
You can find out where the majority of the Bow families were living before
they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure,
port of arrival, and destination.
Click on a circle in the chart to view Bow birth and death records
An unusually short lifespan might indicate that your ancestors lived in harsh conditions.
A short lifespan might also indicate health problems that were once prevalent in
your family.
The SSDI is a searchable database of more than 70 million names. You can find birthdates,
death dates, addresses and more.