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

Cowgill, 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 Cowgill surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Cowgill in America

Cowgill is the 11914th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Cowgill surname appeared 2,628 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Cowgill.

We can also compare 2010 data for Cowgill 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 Cowgill

The surname Cowgill is an English locational name that originated in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is derived from the Old English words "cu" meaning cow and "gil" meaning a ravine or deep glen, denoting someone who lived near a cow ravine or pasture. The name was first recorded in the 13th century as "de Coughell" and "de Cugehull" in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Returns of 1379.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Richard de Coughell, who was mentioned in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield in 1275. The Cowgill family held lands near the village of Cowgill, located in the Yorkshire Dales, which was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Cugel".

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the surname appeared in various spellings such as Coughill, Cowghell, and Cowgell before settling into its modern form of Cowgill. Notable individuals with this surname include John Cowgill (1633-1700), an English Quaker minister and writer, and Jonathan Cowgill (1677-1739), an English clockmaker and inventor from Yorkshire.

In the 18th century, members of the Cowgill family migrated to America, where the name can be found in early colonial records. One of the earliest American bearers was William Cowgill (1712-1768), a Quaker farmer from Chester County, Pennsylvania. Another notable figure was John Cowgill (1809-1891), an American lawyer and politician from Illinois who served as a judge and a member of the Illinois General Assembly.

The 19th century saw the birth of several prominent individuals with the Cowgill surname, including Sir Henry Alfred Cowgill (1859-1928), a British civil engineer and surveyor who worked on railway projects in India, and William Cowgill (1834-1916), an English cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Throughout its history, the Cowgill surname has maintained a strong connection to its Yorkshire roots, with many bearers tracing their ancestry back to the villages and towns of the Yorkshire Dales region.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Cowgill

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

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 Cowgill 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 Cowgill 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 Cowgill was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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