When Thomas Cowley was born on 5 April 1790, in Kirkmichael, Isle of Man, his father, Patrick Cowley, was 24 and his mother, Elizabeth Garret, was 24.
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1766– Male
1765–1847 Female
1790– Male
1792– Male
1794– Male
English: habitational name from any of various places called Cowley. One in Gloucestershire is named with Old English cū ‘cow’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’; two in Derbyshire have Old English col ‘(char)coal’ as the first element; and one near London is from Old English cofa ‘shelter, bay’ (see Cove ) or the personal name Cofa. The largest group, however, with examples in Buckinghamshire, Devon, Oxfordshire, and Staffordshire, were apparently named as ‘the wood or clearing of Cufa’; however, in view of the number of places called with this element, it is possible that it conceals a topographic term as well as a personal name.
Irish: shortened form of Macaulay (see McCauley ).
Manx: shortened form of Gaelic Mac Amhlaoibh ‘son of Amhlaoibh’ (a Gaelicized form of Old Norse Óláfr). For an alternative Manx form of the same patronymic see Callow .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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