An English surname the Rowe family name originally comes from the Old French term ‘le rous’ which refers to someone with red hair. Another reference uses the Middle English term of ‘row’ which refers to a person living in a row of houses.

Spelling variations for Rowe include Row, Rollo and Roe.

In England the Rowe families started in the Norfolk area. From there the Rowe families mostly live in London and the southwestern counties of Cornwall and Devon.
The counties of Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Midlothian In Scotland have the greater percentage of Rowe families.

The states of New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maine have the larger numbers of Rowe families in the United States.


Famous: Henry Rowe (19th century English Gothic architect), Dave Rowe (professional baseball player), Misty Rowe (TV actress), Tom Rowe (screenwriter), Noel Rowe (poet from Australia), John Rowe (18th century tea merchant involved in the Boston Tea Party), Normie Rowe (singer), James N. Rowe (developed the military training program of ‘survival, evasion, resistance and escape‘) and Richard Paul Rowe (record producer of England).