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Bowie is said to be a sept of the Clan Donald North which hales from around Skye in Scotland (the name probably derives from Mac Ghillie Buidhe, which translates roughly as son of the fair haired - or freckled - follower). However, there are other possible origins - and other spellings as well
Many with the name Bowie came out of the Highlands as a consequence of the Clearances. However, there were Bowies outside the Highlands in places such as Edinburgh well before the eighteenth century breakdown in the Highland way of life which culminated in the Clearances.
There have been Bowies in Stirlingshire since the sixteenth century, and Scottish Old Parish Registers and the 1841 census suggest that several families of Bowies were established near Falkirk by the 1800s, some with lineages that can be traced back to the early eighteenth century via Scottish naming patterns but which cannot be corroborated.
Descendants of these families have spread across the world but, from a perusal of telephone directories it appears that the name Bowie remains most commonly to be found in the west of Scotland.