The GOWER surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	6,469	4982	0.002	24
United States (1880 census)	1,211	4644	0.002	24
Change since 1880	+5258	-338	0	0
Other Countries
Australia	919	1785	0.006	56
United Kingdom	4,167	1508	0.009	91

Top States for GOWER by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Pennsylvania	732	1992	0.006	60
California	408	6610	0.001	12
Texas	360	5475	0.002	17
Tennessee	318	2503	0.006	56
Florida	310	6197	0.002	19
Top States for GOWER by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Maine	145	1611	0.011	114
West Virginia	167	1512	0.009	92
Oklahoma	225	2073	0.007	65
Pennsylvania	732	1992	0.006	60
Tennessee	318	2503	0.006	56

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called GOWER live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called GOWER represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called GOWER in Pennsylvania than any other state, but you are more likely to find a GOWER by picking someone at random in Maine than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of GOWER

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Occupational Name

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the GOWER surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the GOWER surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of GOWER in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	112	1.73
Mixed Race	79	1.22
White (Hispanic)	77	1.19
Native American/Alaskan	63	0.97
Asian/Pacific	36	0.56
White (Caucasian)	6,102	94.33

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the GOWER surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of GOWER in historical publications

(origin: Local Welsh.) Gwyr, a place in Glamorganshire, a place inclosed round, encircled. This peninsula is mostly surrounded by the sea and rivers.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

GOWER. "All our Antiquaries agree that this family is one of the oldest in the county of York, and of Anglo-Saxon origin, though they differ as to its patriarch, whom some will have to be Sir Alan Gower, said to be sheriff of that county at the time of the Norman Conquest, A.D. lOGG, and lord of Stittcnham in the same county, now possessed by the Duke of Sutherland, the chief of the house while others with greater probability assert that it descended from one Guhyer, whose son, called William Fitz-Guhyer of Stittenham, was charged with a mark for his lauds in the sheriff's account, 11G7, 13 Henry II., and that Alan was very likely his son." Collins' Peerage 17G8, V. 340. The poet Gower is said to have been of the Stittenham stock, though he did not bear the same arms. Lelaud says : " The house of Gower the poet yet remaineth at Switenham (Stittenham), in Yorkshire, and divers of them sjns have been knightes." The noble Gowers pronounce their name as if written Gore, but a jeomanry family in the south of England make it rhyme with ' power,' or ' shower.'

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to GOWER

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as GOWER.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.