Follow
This is an occupational last name referring to a person who was a bird catcher or hunter, or gamekeeper, a sportsman who pursued wild fowl, often killing the birds with a bird bolt, net, or fowling piece. This was a common and important job during medieval times and the Middles Ages throughout Europe, Christendom, and the Holy Roman Empire, including the British Isles. The name derives from the Old English word fugelere and the Middle English word foulere, meaning hunter of wild birds, words that ultimately derive from the Anglo-Saxon word fugol (bird). The earliest known bearer of this surname, and the progenitor or ancestor of this family was Richard le Fowler, born between 1025 and 1085 AD, who was a Norman Knight who came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066 AD during the Norman Invasion.