Explore the Family Name Gowans

The meaning of Gowans

Irish and Scottish: variant of McGowan ‘son of the smith’, in which the Gaelic patronymic prefix Mac has been replaced by the English patronymic suffix -s.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Gowans in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Gowans has seen a slight increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 23,683rd most popular surname, but by 2010, it had moved up to the 23,185th spot, indicating a growth of 2.1%. The count of individuals with this surname also increased from 998 to 1,100 during this period, marking a 10.22% rise. However, its proportion per 100,000 people remained constant at 0.37.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#23,683	#23,185	2.1%
Count	998	1,100	10.22%
Proportion per 100k	0.37	0.37	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Gowans

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Gowans also underwent some changes from 2000 to 2010, according to the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, around 60.52% of those with the surname identified as White, but this figure dropped to 57.45% in 2010. The percentage of Gowans identifying as Black showed a minor increase from 33.57% to 34%. One notable shift was the significant rise in the percentage of individuals identifying their ethnicity as Asian/Pacific Islander, which jumped from 1.4% to 4.36%. Meanwhile, the proportion of those identifying as Hispanic decreased slightly from 3.11% to 2.73%. There were no individuals with this surname who identified as being of two or more races or American Indian and Alaskan Native during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	60.52%	57.45%	-5.07%
Black	33.57%	34%	1.28%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.4%	4.36%	211.43%
Hispanic	3.11%	2.73%	-12.22%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%