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Bowman

#2,396 in 2025Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Bowman has been given to 1,022 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #2,396 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 57 recorded.

Babies named Bowman, 2025

1 in 58,200

Bowman over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Bowman: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Bowman means

Bowman is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Bowman is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,022 boys were recorded with the name Bowman between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 57 in 2025; its best national rank was #989 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,661 in 2020 to #2,396 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,867 in 2015 to #2,396 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Bowman?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 58,200
57 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 30,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,396
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
40,315 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Bowman sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 40,315 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Bowman. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Bowmans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Bowman was born before 2014 — so the typical Bowman is around 11 today.

Median birth year
2014
About 11 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
29.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
67.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
856
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 29.4% of all recorded uses (300).

Is Bowman rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+111
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+265
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+471
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.39×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (57)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#989
1884

Spellings of Bowman

Bowman is not the most common spelling — Norman is, with 58.0% against Bowman's 0.23%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Bowman is used

Across 1910–2025, Bowman was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 328,439 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Carolina1 in 100,000
  2. 2South Carolina1 in 100,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in —
  4. 4Tennessee1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Bowman has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Bowman around the world

Where Bowman ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Canada
    2023–2023
    #3,103
    in 2023

Popularity data from Statistics Canada. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Bowman by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,396
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 265
Best rank ever
#989
1884
Peak year
2025
57 that year
First recorded
1884
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,022
Count in 2025
57

Names similar to Bowman

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BowdenCaymanColmanHarmanLuqmanKalmanRahmanBowieFermanZalmanOthmanChapmanWhitmanSalmanOusmanNachmanUthmanBowynSolomanUsmanLehmanCarmanGilmanTilman

Sibling names for Bowman

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Bowman

Top names of 2025, Bowman's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Boys' names starting with BOccupational Names