Bowman

100,205 people in the United States were counted with the surname Bowman in the 2020 census, making it the 309th most common in the country. That is about one person in 2,983.

By the numbers

People: 100,205
Rank: 309th
How common: 1 in 2,983
Per 100,000: 33.5

Where the name comes from

Origin an occupational name

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 78.1%
Black, not Hispanic 13.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.1%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Bowman

Julia Hall Bowman Robinson (1919–1985)American mathematician
Josh Bowman (born 1988)British actor
Scotty Bowman (born 1933)Canadian ice hockey coach
Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet (1816–1892)surgeon, histologist, anatomist
Rob Bowman (born 1960)American film director
Jessica Bowman (born 1980)American actress
Lee Bowman (1914–1979)American actor
Maddie Bowman (born 1994)American freestyle skier

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

Surnames like Bowman

Also a first name

Bowman has been given to 1,022 American babies as a first name since 1884, peaking in 2025. 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.