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Origin & Meaning
British
"The name Mower is not a common one in New England, nor in Old England either. In the old country appear two families or branches of the same name, in Devonshire and Derbyshire, each having their coat of arms and history. The Derby family is very old."
"The somewhat quaint origin of the name Mower, as traditionally understood, is given in the book of English Surnames by Mark Anthony Lower: "In the life of Hereward the Saxon, who flourished about 1070, an opponent of William I in England, one of the last of his race who withstood the Norman Conquests, are found several such names as "Leofrick the Mower, from his having overcome 20 men with a scythe, etc.” — It would appear from this that the earliest ancestry were of the old Saxon race or Saxon blood. The Normans made their conquest complete in 1066, Henry VI began his reign in 1422; and to make matter of early dates still more interesting, it may be added that in the Halls of Heraldry, London, where records of all the English families of note are kept, are family data and records, by complete generations, back to 1300! thus showing a strong line of ancestral history. The name is also found in Scotland, scattered descendants presumably of the earlier English families."