Brow Family History

English: either a descriptive nickname for someone with bushy or otherwise distinctive eyebrows from Middle English broue ‘eyebrow eyelid forehead’ (Old English brū) but more likely a topographic name for someone who lived at the brow of a hill from a transferred use of the same word; surnames of the type de la Browe are recorded from the end of the 13th century.

Altered form of French Brault and also of American French Breaux. Compare Bro and Broe. Americanized form of Dutch Brouw: perhaps a nominal variant of Op den Brouw, a habitational name for someone living at the ‘Brouw’, a toponym of unclear origin or just a place for beer brewing.

(Brouw being a shortened form of brouwen ‘to brew’ or brouwer ‘brewer’).