Cowans History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The Strathclyde-Briton people of ancient Scotland were the first to use the name Cowans. The Cowans family lived in the Scottish-English border region. The Cowans family lived in Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire, and other Lowland counties. The name may be from the Scottish word cowan, a dry-stone-diker or more likely a corruption of Colquhoun, the common pronunciation of which is Cohoon. “Mr. Alexander Cowan, father of Sir John Cowan of Beeslack is said to have left on record that many of his grandfather’s books bore the name of Colquhoun.” 1

Early Origins of the Cowans family

The surname Cowans was first found in Ayrshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Àir), formerly a county in the southwestern Strathclyde region of Scotland where a name like Iain MacComhain becomes Iain Comhan in Gaelic while the English equivalent is Cowan. The name of James Cowhen, chaplain in North Berwick, 1560. 1