Mowbrays

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Members of the Mowbray family, an English surname with Norman roots, or people who bear that name
2. Several people sharing the Mowbray surname, which traces back to a medieval Norman noble house
3. Families or individuals carrying the surname Mowbray, a name linked to the medieval Norman baronial line in England

Etymology: Mowbrays is the plural of Mowbray, a surname that began as a place name. Mowbray is an English habitational surname of Norman origin, taken from the village of Montbray in Normandy. Families who came over from that village, or who held land there, were known by its name, and in England the name stuck to them as a surname. The village name is itself a compound from Old French. "Mont" meant "hill," and "brai" meant "mud" or "slime," so Montbray describes a muddy hill or a hill of sticky ground. The pairing is ordinary enough for a Norman settlement name, and it shows how a plain description of the land could become a family's identity. The plural form simply refers to more than one bearer of the name, so "the Mowbrays" can mean several people or a whole family line sharing the surname.