Norwegian names were patronymic until the late 1800s when the Norwegian government stabilized them. So a son of Niel might be Lars Nielson. In addition, farming families added the farm name on the end. So in our case you might have Lars Nielson Böe, from Böe farm. A Norwegian researcher found that "in 1875 there were at least 149 people living on 28 different holdings on Middle Boe and North Boe farms in Steigen. When the Norwegian government insisted on stable surnames in the late 19th-early 20th century, some went with their farm name and others went with their patronymics." [1]
There is a Norwegian origin for some American Bowe and Boe families in the US. [2]
Some background: the name in Norway was Bø or Böe and most immigrants of that very common Norwegian name took Boe in this country. My great-great-grandfather may have chosen the English spelling [Bowe] because there were families of that name, with that spelling, in Vernon County [WI] at about the time that he arrived with his family in the late 1860s. [3]
Similar origins may occur in other Nordic countries. [4]
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1. Email correspondence from Nick Carter.
2. Carlson, Don. "The Norwegian Bowes of Vernon County, WI." Bowe Message Board post, Ancestry.com. (http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.bowe/364/mb.ashx?r=an: accessed 30 July 2011).
3. Ibid.
4. Pfaff, Judith. "Nordic Names" NNWiki (http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/Surnames: accessed 29 December 2011.