Meaning & Origins

New Testament name of unknown origin, borne by the grandmother of the Timothy to whom St Paul wrote two epistles (see 2 Timothy 1:5). Both Timothy and his mother Eunice bore common Greek names, but Lois remains unexplained. In popular fiction the name is borne by Lois Lane, the reporter girlfriend of Superman.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places, for example in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Shropshire, and Suffolk, so called from Old English stōw, a word akin to stoc (see Stoke), with the specialized meaning ‘meeting place’, frequently referring to a holy place or church. Places in Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Staffordshire having this origin use the spelling Stowe, but the spelling difference cannot be relied on as an indication of locality of origin. The final -e in part represents a trace of the Old English dative inflection.