How common is the surname Sowerby?

326 people in the United States had the surname Sowerby in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 947,072 Americans. It ranked 61,585th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Sowerby?

James Sowerby, British botanical illustrator and mineralogist (1757-1822), followed by James De Carle Sowerby.

Where is the surname Sowerby most common?

Wikidata records people named Sowerby in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States.

Is the surname Sowerby getting more or less common?

More common. 297 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 326 in 2010, up 9.8%.

The surname Sowerby

A Norse place surname, carried by 326 people in the United States.

3 syllables Soundex S610

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Sowerby is more common than 62% of them.

Origin

Norse origin

From Old Norse saurr (“mud, dirt, sour ground”) + bý (“farmstead”).

Sowerby is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 126 Norse surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 326 people named Sowerby in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 947,072 Americans. That is up 9.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 297.

#61,585

rank among US surnames

326

people in 2010

0.1

per 100,000 Americans

+9.8%

change since 2000 (was #62,961)

Who is named Sowerby

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

86% of people named Sowerby identified as white (not Hispanic), 8.3% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 86%
Black (not Hispanic) 8.3%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.7%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Multiracial are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Sowerbys

5 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

James Sowerby
British botanical illustrator and mineralogist (1757-1822)
James De Carle Sowerby
British botanist, mineralogist and illustrator (1787-1871)
George Brettingham Sowerby
British conchologist; (1788-1854)
Leo Sowerby
American composer and church musician (1895-1968)
George Brettingham Sowerby III
British conchologist; (1843-1921)

Notable Sowerbys come mostly from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (3), the Kingdom of Great Britain (1) and the United States (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Sowerby

Sorbo

Sowerby has the Soundex code S610, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S610.

Other Norse surnames

All 126 Norse surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Sowerby come from?: From Old Norse saurr (“mud, dirt, sour ground”) + bý (“farmstead”).
How common is the surname Sowerby?: 326 people in the United States had the surname Sowerby in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 947,072 Americans. It ranked 61,585th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Sowerby?: In the 2010 Census, 86% of people named Sowerby identified as white (not Hispanic), and 8.3% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Sowerby?: James Sowerby, British botanical illustrator and mineralogist (1757-1822), followed by James De Carle Sowerby.
Where is the surname Sowerby most common?: Wikidata records people named Sowerby in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States.
What type of surname is Sowerby?: Sowerby is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Sowerby getting more or less common?: More common. 297 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 326 in 2010, up 9.8%.