Please note, the details in these web pages and references may or may not be accurate. Currently this information is a rough overview provided for reference and ongoing refinement.

Acknowledgements go to the work of Bob Bowie and many other contributers at the Bowie Genealogy facebook group, among other resources.

BOWIE SURNAME ORIGINS

Scotland

In Scotland Bowie derives from Buie, which in turn derives from buidhe, meaning "yellow", "fair-haired." There are likely multiple Scottish geographic origins of the name, since it derives from "fair-haired."

Some Scottish Buie/Bowie are known to have been a sept of Clan McDonald living on the Isle of Jura. Y DNA data suggests this: View our Kit 150871 matching McDonald in the Isle of Jura DNA project results. This Buie/Bowie line migrated to Cumberland, North Carolina. (Our Bowie Kit 478720 also migrated to Cumberland, NC, but he does not match Kit 150871. A documentary lineage tying these two together is needed to ascertain whether Kit 478720 is also Isle of Jura Buie/Bowie.)

Ireland

In Ireland Bowie is believed to derive from Ó Buadhaigh, meaning "descendant of Buadhach." Buadhach means "victorious." So far there is scant evidence of an Irish Bowie connection with Ó Buadhaigh. There is only one Bowie DNA sample (by that spelling) associated with Ireland between this project and the Bowes DNA project that also includes the Bowie surname. However, as in Scotland, the name Buie does appear in Ireland, and other surname spellings arising from the onomastic roots Buie (yellow) and Ó Buadhaigh (victorious) appear to be alive and well. (Documentation to come.)

POTENTIAL SURNAME VARIANTS IN DOCUMENTS

Bowoey, Boey, Boe, Bowey, Bowe, Bowa, Boah, Boye