Where does the surname Cowan come from?

Cowan is Scottish Gaelic in origin.

How common is the surname Cowan?

32,586 people in the United States had the surname Cowan in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 9,475 Americans. It ranked 1,074th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Cowan?

Edith Cowan, Australian politician, followed by Mo Cowan.

Where is the surname Cowan most common?

Wikidata records people named Cowan in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Is the surname Cowan getting more or less common?

More common. 32,242 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 32,586 in 2010, up 1.1%.

The surname Cowan

A Scottish Gaelic patronymic surname, carried by 32,586 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex C500

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Cowan is more common than 99.3% of them.

Origin

Scottish Gaelic origin

A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic; an anglicization of mac Eoghainn (“son of Ewen”)

Cowan is a patronymic surname: formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.

One of 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 32,586 people named Cowan in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 9,475 Americans. That is up 1.1% since 2000, when the Census counted 32,242.

#1,074

rank among US surnames

32,586

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+1.1%

change since 2000 (was #985)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,065	Frey	32,904	9,383
#1,066	Carney	32,897	9,385
#1,067	Barrios	32,873	9,392
#1,068	Bolton	32,815	9,409
#1,069	Holman	32,788	9,416
#1,070	Tovar	32,760	9,424
#1,071	Cardona	32,727	9,434

Who is named Cowan

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

79% of people named Cowan identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 79%
Black (not Hispanic) 15%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Two or more races 2.0%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Cowans

11 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Edith Cowan
Australian politician, 1861–1932
Mo Cowan
29th United States Senator from Massachusetts (Class 2), born 1969
Jerome Cowan
American actor (1897–1972)
Elliot Cowan
British actor, born 1976
Caylee Cowan
American actress, born 1998
Dwayne Cowan
British athlete, born 1985
Juliet Cowan
British actress, born 1974
Richard Sumner Cowan
American botanist (1921–1997)
George Cowan
American physical chemist, businessman and philanthropist (1920–2012)
Edgar Cowan
American politician (1815–1885)
Ed Cowan
Australian cricketer, born 1982

Notable Cowans come mostly from the United States (6), the United Kingdom (3) and Australia (2).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Cowans
Cowin
Cowing

Surnames that sound like Cowan

Cowan has the Soundex code C500, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C500.

Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Cowan come from?: Cowan is Scottish Gaelic in origin.
How common is the surname Cowan?: 32,586 people in the United States had the surname Cowan in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 9,475 Americans. It ranked 1,074th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Cowan?: In the 2010 Census, 79% of people named Cowan identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Cowan?: Edith Cowan, Australian politician, followed by Mo Cowan.
Where is the surname Cowan most common?: Wikidata records people named Cowan in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
What type of surname is Cowan?: Cowan is a patronymic surname, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.
Is the surname Cowan getting more or less common?: More common. 32,242 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 32,586 in 2010, up 1.1%.
What are other spellings of Cowan?: Cowans, Cowin and Cowing.