Bowie

11,239 people in the United States were counted with the surname Bowie in the 2020 census, making it the 3,123rd most common in the country. That is about one person in 26,600.

By the numbers

People: 11,239
Rank: 3,123rd
How common: 1 in 26,600
Per 100,000: 3.8

Where the name comes from

From Irish Ó Buadhaigh and Scottish Gaelic Mac 'Ille Bhuidh.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Bowie described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

Black, not Hispanic 48.6%
White, not Hispanic 41.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.9%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Bowie

David Bowie (1947–2016)English musician and actor
Tori Bowie (1990–2023)American sprinter and long jumper
Sam Bowie (born 1961)American basketball player
Lester Bowie (1941–1999)American jazz trumpet player and composer
Angela Bowie (born 1949)American actress and model
Anthony Bowie (born 1963)American basketball player-coach

People named Bowie with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Bowie

Also a first name

Bowie has been given to 3,520 American babies as a first name since 1920, peaking in 2021. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.