Cowburn Family History
Cowburn Surname Meaning
from Cowburn in Kirkham (Lancs) as the earliest bearers below suggest. The -r- is sometimes lost or metathesized.
Colborne is probably a hypercorrect form restoring an unhistorical -l- (see Colbourne).
in WR Yorks it is possibly a variant of Colbran as Redmonds argues with vocalization of the -l- and metathesis or -r- or a variant of Colbourne.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016
