Word.ws English Dictionary

Bowden

/ˈbaʊdən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Canada/ˈboʊdən/

Bowden proper noun: a surname.

Proper noun (1)

Bowden

  1. A surname.
  2. A hamlet in Stoke Fleming parish, South Hams district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX8448).
  3. A hamlet in Kington Magna parish, Dorset, England (OS grid ref ST7723).
  4. A village in the Scottish Borders council area, Scotland, historically in Roxburghshire (OS grid ref NT5530).
  5. An unincorporated community in Creek County, Oklahoma, United States.
  6. A census-designated place in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.

Proper noun (2)

Bowden

  1. A town in Alberta, Canada.

Origin of Bowden

* As an English surname, from several places in England, derived from Old English boga (“bow”) + dun (“hill”). * Also as an English surname, from Old English būfan dun (“above the hill”). * As a Scottish surname, from the place in Roxburghshire from Old English bōthl (“dwelling house”) + denu (“valley”). * As an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Buadáin (literally “descendant of Buadán”). * Also as an English surname, variant of Bawden.

Uncertain, but the most accepted theory is that it originated from the maiden name of the wife of a surveyor named Williamson, who named the settlement along the Edmonton–Calgary Trail. Another theory states it originated from the village of Bowdon in Greater Manchester, England.

Words formed from Bowden

Phrases with Bowden

Words that rhyme with Bowden

Questions about Bowden

What does Bowden mean?
Bowden means a surname.
What part of speech is Bowden?
Bowden is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Bowden?
Bowden is pronounced /ˈbaʊdən/.

Words near Bowden in the dictionary

  1. bowcat
  2. bowcats
  3. bowcatted
  4. bowcatting
  5. bowdacious
  6. Bowden
  7. Bowden cable
  8. Bowden cables
  9. Bowdish
  10. Bowdishes
  11. Bowditch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bowden (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Bowden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.