Bower Family History

English: from Middle English bour bor(e) bur(e) (Old English būr) ‘cottage chamber bower’ denoting either a ‘cottager’ or ‘chamber-servant’ or a topographic name for someone who lived in a small cottage or a habitational name from any of various minor places called from this word in Somerset Sussex Essex and Peeblesshire.

Compare Bowerman and Bowring. English: variant of Bowyer for a maker or seller of bows or an archer from Middle English bowyere an agent derivative of Old English boga ‘bow’.

Americanized form of German Bauer ‘peasant’ or ‘neighbor fellow citizen’ or of its Dutch cognate Bouwer.