Sowerby Family History
Sowerby Name Meaning
English: habitational name from any of various places in northern England called Sowerby including Sowerby Bridge (Yorkshire) Castle Sowerby (Cumberland) Brough and Temple Sowerby (Westmorland) Sowerby and Sowerby under Cotcliffe (North Yorkshire) and Sowerby near Inskip and Sowerby Hall in Dalton (Lancashire). The placenames derive from Old Norse saurr ‘mud sour ground’ + bȳ ‘farmstead village’. Placenames of identical origin are also found in Scotland (as Sorbie in Ayrshire Dumfriesshire and Wigtownshire as Soroba in Argyll and as Soroby on Tiree); also on the Isle of Man (as Surby).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022