Sowerby Family History

English: habitational name from any of various places in northern England called Sowerby including Sowerby Bridge (Yorkshire), Castle Sowerby (Cumberland), Brough and Temple Sowerby (Westmorland), Sowerby and Sowerby under Cotcliffe (North Yorkshire), and Sowerby near Inskip and Sowerby Hall in Dalton (Lancashire).

The placenames derive from Old Norse saurr ‘mud, sour ground’ + bȳ ‘farmstead, village’. Placenames of identical origin are also found in Scotland (as Sorbie in Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire, and Wigtownshire), as Soroba in Argyll, and as Soroby on Tiree); also on the Isle of Man (as Surby).