Last name origins & meanings:
- English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived
near a tumulus, mound or hill, Middle English lowe, from Old
English hlāw (see Law 2).
- Scottish and
English: nickname for a short man, from Middle English lah,
lowe (Old Norse lágr; the word was adopted first into
the northern dialects of Middle English, where Scandinavian influence
was strong, and then spread south, with regular alteration of the
vowel quality).
- English and Scottish (of Norman origin): nickname
for a violent or dangerous person, from Anglo-Norman French
lou, leu ‘wolf’ (Latin lupus). Wolves were
relatively common in Britain at the time when most surnames were
formed, as there still existed large tracts of uncleared forest.
- Scottish: from a pet form of Lawrence. Compare
Lowry 1.
- Americanized spelling of Jewish Lowe.
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