Find out how popular the last name Cowell is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Cowell.

Cowell, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Cowell surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Cowell in America

Cowell is the 5269th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Cowell surname appeared 6,618 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Cowell.

We can also compare 2010 data for Cowell to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Cowell

The surname COWELL has its origins in England, traced back to the early medieval period. It is believed to have derived from the Old English words "cu" meaning cow and "well" meaning spring or stream, indicating that the name's bearers lived near a source of water frequented by cattle.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, which documented landowners in England after the Norman Conquest. The entry mentions a landowner named Richard de Couwella in Derbyshire.

In the 13th century, the surname was found in various spellings such as Couwell, Couewell, and Cowelle, reflecting the variations in pronunciation and orthography during that era.

The COWELL name has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history. One of the earliest recorded was Sir John Cowell (c. 1554-1611), an English lawyer and author known for his work on the interpretation of laws.

Another prominent figure was Edward Bates Cowell (1826-1903), an English orientalist and the first professor of Sanskrit at the University of Cambridge.

In the 19th century, Samuel Houghton Cowell (1820-1864) gained recognition as a British mathematician and inventor of the Cowell Median Remainders, a method for solving linear equations.

The name is also linked to the place name Cowell in Gloucestershire, which likely derived from the same Old English roots as the surname.

One of the most famous bearers of the COWELL name in recent times is Simon Cowell (born 1959), the British television personality and entrepreneur known for his roles on shows like American Idol and The X Factor.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Cowell

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Cowell.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Cowell was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Cowell has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Cowell was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Cowell, please contact us.

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