Bowie

Meaning: Yellow-haired, fair
Origin: Gaelic "son of the yellow lad" (from Scottish Gaelic (surname also from Irish))

Boy's name · #1228 in the US (2025) · 2020s wave

62% boys · 38% girls — Bowie is also given to girls: 117 in 2025, about 38% in recent years. Bowie →

Popularity over time

Bowie is near its high-water mark: it reached #952 in 2021 and still ranked #1228 in 2025. About 2,200 boys have carried it since 1920.

Across the states

See where Bowie is more common.

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 19 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Around the world

See how Bowie ranks in other countries and regions.

#93 in Australia (QLD) (2025) · #260 in Netherlands (2025) · #300 in New Zealand (2025) · #369 in Scotland (2025) · #380 in England & Wales (2025) · #401 in N. Ireland (2025) · #521 in Ireland (2025) · #748 in Belgium (2025) · #918 in Canada (2024).

Famous Bowies

Bowie Lam — Hong Kong actor
Bowie Wu — Hong Kong male actor, programme host, and singer
Bowie Kuhn — American baseball commissioner (1926–2007)
Bowie Wong — Australian fashion designer
Bowie Hau Chi-keung — Hong Kong politician

As a surname

It is also an American family name — about 12,000 people carried it as a surname in the 2010 census.

David Bowie — English musician and actor (1947–2016)
James Bowie — Nineteenth-century American pioneer
Tori Bowie — American sprinter and long jumper

What Bowies become

Among 16 notable people named Bowie:

Entertainers appear 2.82× more often than among typical names — e.g. Bowie Lam, Hong Kong actor.

Similar names: Lenox · Bodi · Kendrix · Kacey · Finnley · Massiah

Browse more boy names — popularity, trends and eras for 5,700+ American names, free.

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