Some great history in that link, and more in the links provided in the link.
I do wonder if Bowie ever saw much less used a knife that we would recognize as a bowie. The presentation models Rezin Bowie had made resembled in shape fancy, silver-clad examples of regular butcher knives.
I wonder too how much of the popular names arose from the marketing by the Sheffield UK companies that made many of the bowies used in the US. I believe it was in Russels classic Firearms Traps and Tools of the Mountain Men there’s a picture of a knife that was sold as a “Buffalo Knife” in Canada, “Bowie Knife” in the US and “Gaucho Knife” in South America. Same blade, different handles.
