This surname is derived from a geographical locality. a variant of Gore, which see, compare Power.

David Gower, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

(Celtic) 1 belonging to Gower (S. Wales) = a Croft, Close [Welsh gower] 2 the O.Welsh pers. name Gwyr=Pure [Welsh gwyr] I seek it from Garwyli the son of Gwythawc Gwyr, and Gwythawc Gwyr himself.

— ‘Kulhwch ac Olwen’: Mabinogion, tr. Guest. (English) a form of Gore, q.v.

(Leland also gives it Gower; in Duchesne’s copy, Gouer) Sir Bernard Burke classes this among the monkish additions, as a Saxon origin has always been assigned to the old house now represented by the Dukes of Sutherland, Earls Granville, and Earls of Ellesmere. Their Yorkshire manor of Stittenham is believed to have been transmitted through a line of ancestors that held it at the Conquest; though Sir Egerton Brydges derives them first “from one Guhyer, whose son, called William Fitz Guhyer, of Stittenham, was charged with half a mark (or rather a mark) for his lands in the sheriff’s accounts, 1167." The name (which began to be written Gower about the time of Edward I.) is, how­ever, incontestably to be found in Normandy, and is said to have been imported from Scandinavia. It is borne by a place still called Goher; and Thomas and Osmond Goher, at Caen, Ralph Goher at Bayeux, and Thomas Goher at Coutances are all mentioned in the Norman Exchequer Rolls during the last years of the twelfth century. Two De Guers - one of them Marquis de Pontcalé, were among the Norman nobles convoked for the election of the States-General in 1789: they belonged to the Côtentin. “In England it appears in 1130, when Walter de Guher paid scutage for his lands at Carmarthen (Rot Pip.). He had probably been one of the Norman knights who accompanied Arnulph de Montgomery. Adelard de Guer witnessed a charter of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, 1136, (Mon. i. 460) from which family Roger de Guer held a fief in 1165, (Liber Niger) when also Hugh de Goher held a fee from the Earl of Warwick (lb.) William Guhier obtained a pardon in Oxford 1158 (Rot Pip.) being also of Essex, for after 1152 the Abbey of Tilteney, Essex, acquired lands of the fief of William Goer (Mon. i. 889). This William Guhier or Goer was Lord of Stittenham in Yorkshire, and was dead A.D. 1200 (Rotuli Curiæ Regis). He confirmed the grant of Godfrey Fitz Richard of Stitnam to Rievaulx Abbey (Burton, Mon. Ebor, 363). Walter Goher, his son or grandson, (Mon. ii. 822) had issue William, ‘son of Walter Goher,’ who in 1270 paid a fine to the Crown (Roberts, Excerpt ii. 513). This William had a park in Dorset, temp. Henry III. (Placit Abbrev. 281). His son John was summoned in 1300 for military service in Scotland; and in the same year Robert Gouer (probably his brother) was commissioner of array in Yorkshire, according to Palgrave’s Parliamentary Writs. From this family descend the Dukes of Sutherland, &c.”— The Norman People. Still, it should be noted that the arms of the Gowers of Essex, a chevron between three wolves’ heads erased, are entirely different from those borne by the Duke, and more nearly resemble the coat of the poet Gower and the Kentish family to which he belonged. “They bore the chevron charged with three heads, whether of lions, leopards, or wolves, it were hard to say.” Gower’s lineage has been carefully investigated by Sir Harris Nicolas. He was probably nephew and heir male of Sir Robert Gower, who resided in Kent, and from whose daughter he acquired by purchase the manor of Aldington in Kent about 1365: also that of Kentwell, Suffolk, and another in Essex. He was born c. 1325, as it is supposed, in Wales, and lived into the reign of Henry IV., having lost his sight a few years before his death. It is conjectured that he was a knight, and even a judge; a rich man he certainly was. He graduated at Oxford, was on terms of friendship with most of the great men of his day, and, attaching himself to Thomas of Woodstock, became as zealous a Lancastrian as was his contemporary Chaucer. But here the resemblance between them ends. In Gower’s stiff, pedantic, frigid verses—aptly described as "heavy platitudes," there is none of the beauty, brilliancy, and humour that brightens every page of Chaucer’s writing.

"All our Antiquaries agree that this family is one of the oldest in the county of York, and of Anglo-Saxon origin, though they differ as to its patriarch, whom some will have to be Sir Alan Gower, said to be sheriff of that county at the time of the Norman Conquest, A.D. 1066, and lord of Stittenham in the same county, [now possessed by the Duke of Sutherland, the chief of the house] while others with greater probability assert that it descended from one Guhyer, whose son, called William Fitz-Guhyer of Stittenham, was charged with a mark for his lands in the sheriff's account, 1167,13 Henry II., and that Alan was very likely his son." Collins' Peerage 1768, v. 340. The poet Gower is said to have been of the Stittenham stock, though he did not bear the same arms. Leland says: "The house of Gower the poet yet remaineth at Switenham (Stittenham), in Yorkshire, and divers of them syns have been knightes." The noble Gowers pronounce their name as if written Gore, but a yeomanry family in the south of England make it rhyme with 'power,' or ' shower.'

Local. (Welsh.) Gwyr, a place in Glamorganshire, a place inclosed round, encircled. This peninsula is mostly surrounded by the sea and rivers.

Or Goer, a Norman family from Goher, Normandy, which name was transferred from Scandinavia. Thomas Goher paid talliage at Caen, 1195, as did Ralph G. Ralph paid a fine at Bayeux; Thomas in 1198 paid a fine at Coutances; and Osmond Gohier at Caen, where he also made a loan of 15 l. to the king (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). In England the name appears in 1130, when Walter de Guher paid scutage for his lands at Carmarthen (Rot. Pip.). He had probably been one of the Norman knights who accompanied Arnulph de Montgomery. Adelard de Guer witnessed a charter of Geoffry de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, 1136 (Mon. i. 460), from which family Roger de Guer held a fief in 1165 (Liber Niger), when also Hugh de Goher held a fee from the Earl of Warwick (Ibid.). William ‘Guhier’ obtained a pardon in Oxford, 1158 (Rot. Pip.), being also of Essex, for after 1152 the Abbey of Tilteney, Essex, acquired lands of the fief of William ‘Goer’ (Mon. i. 889). This William Goer or Guhier was Lord of Stittenham, Yorkshire, and was dead a.d. 1200 (Rotuli Curiae Regis). He confirmed the grant of Godfrey Fitz-Richard of Stitnam to Rivaux Abbey (Burton, Mon. Ebor. 363). Walter Goher, his son or grandson (Mon. ii. 822), had issue William, ‘son of Walter Goher,’ who in 1270 paid a fine to the Crown (Roberts, Excerpt. ii. 513). This William G. had a park in Dorset, t. Henry III. (Placit. Abbrev. 281). His son John was summoned in 1300 for miltary service in Scotland; and in the same year Robert Gouer (probably his brother) was commissioner of array in Yorkshire (Parliamentary Writs). From this family descend the Dukes of Sutherland, Earls of Granville, Ellesmere, and Cromartie.

John. The Poet’s origin has been treated by Sir Harris Nicolas (Retrospective Review, Series ii. vol. 2, and in the Kentish Archaeologia, vol. vi.). It appears from these authorities that G. was born c. 1330; acquired the Lordship of Aldington, Kent, in 1365; that of Kentwell, Suffolk, and an­other in Essex by purchase from the dau. of Sir Robert Gower, Knt.; also Multon, Suffolk, and Feltwell, Norfolk, in 1382; and a lease of Southwell, Notts, which with Multon he left to his widow on his decease, 1408. The poet was probably nephew and heir-male of the above Sir Robert Gower. The latter resided in Kent. In 1359 King Edw. III. took up his abode at Stonar, Me of Thanet, in a house formerly belonging to 'Robert Goviere’ (Hasted, Kent, iv. 385). In the preceding generation ‘Richard Gouiere’ was bailsman for an M.P. for Sussex, 1313, and was not of that county, but probably of Kent; and from the continual interchange of families between Kent and Essex was doubtless of the Essex family of Goher or Guhier, as the name is not an early Kentish one. The family of Guhier or Goer in Essex was Norman and of great antiquity (see Gower, Duke of Sutherland). The arms of Gower of Essex were a chevron between three wolves’ heads erased. The poet and the Kentish family bore the chevron charged with three heads, whether of lions, leopards, or wolves, it were hard to say. Archdeacon Todd was not so much in error as Nicolas and others have supposed, in making the poet of the same family as the Gowers of Stittenham.

A location name in South Wales. Also a from the German, personal name.

Gower: This is very suspicious. It seems to be taken from the district of Gower in South Wales. Gower occurs in the “Annales Cambriæ” under date 954, and is mentioned in the “Book of Llan Dav” in 1150.

Gower was the name of the vicar of St. Stephen's in 1457; and John Gower had property in Hollingborne in the time of Edward III. (H.). The noble family of this name has been connected with this county.