Owen
Meaning of Owen
Owen (pronounced OH-in) springs from the Celtic well, blending the Welsh “Owain” and the Irish “Eoghan,” names that whisper “young warrior,” “noble,” and even “born of the yew,” a tree the Romans once called sacred—buena mezcla, ¿no? Over the years this short, upbeat name has marched from medieval battlefields straight onto Hollywood’s red carpets with charm to spare (think poet-soldier Wilfred Owen and the ever-smiling actor Owen Wilson). In the U.S. charts it has danced from the 400s a generation ago to today’s Top 30, proving that parents adore its friendly stride and timeless strength. Picture a little Owen racing through life like a bright comet—courageous, kind, and just mischievous enough to keep things interesting. If you crave a name that feels classic yet fresh, Celtic yet universal, Owen carries that noble torch with an ¡olé! and a grin.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as OH-in (/ˈəʊ.ən/)
American English
- Pronunced as OH-in (/ˈoʊ.ən/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Owen
| Owen Brown, third son of abolitionist John Brown, was the most involved of his siblings, the only one to take part in both Bleeding Kansas and the Harpers Ferry raid, training with recruits in Tabor Iowa, helping plan in Chatham Ontario, and serving as the group treasurer. |
| Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and screenwriter known for his longtime collaboration with Wes Anderson, including co writing The Royal Tenenbaums which earned Academy Award and BAFTA nominations. |
| Sir Owen Tudor, a Welsh courtier and second husband of Queen Catherine of Valois, was the grandfather of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty. |
| Owen Kay Garriott was an American electrical engineer and NASA astronaut who spent 60 days on Skylab in 1973 and 10 days on Spacelab 1 aboard the Space Shuttle in 1983. |
| William Owen Chadwick was a British Anglican priest, rugby international, and renowned historian of Christianity who led Selwyn College, Cambridge and held the Dixie and Regius history professorships. |
| Owen Chase, first mate of the whaler Essex when a sperm whale sank it in 1820, wrote an 1821 shipwreck narrative that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. |
| Owen Duncan Archdeacon is a Scottish former footballer who played mostly left wing for Celtic, Barnsley, Carlisle United, and Greenock Morton, later moving into defense. |
| Owen Williams is a Welsh rugby union fly-half for the Ospreys who has represented Wales at senior and U20 level. |
| Owen Frawley Kildare was an early 20th century American writer whose gritty New York slum stories earned him the nickname the Kipling of the Bowery. |
| Owen McMahon Johnson was an American author best known for his Lawrenceville prep school stories about Dink Stover, adapted into The Happy Years and a PBS miniseries. |
| Owen Bennett-Jones is a British freelance journalist and BBC World Service Newshour relief presenter, a former correspondent who reports worldwide and hosts a podcast on the New Books Network. |
| Owen Keir Davidson was an Australian professional tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s. |
| Owen Edward McGee is an English former full-back who made 21 appearances and scored once for Middlesbrough before leaving in 1992 for Scarborough and Guisborough Town, later marrying and having three sons. |
| Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic, co-chief film critic at Variety since 2016, previously at Entertainment Weekly and The Phoenix. |
| Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer and multi instrumentalist who, as Final Fantasy, won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize, arranged and toured with Arcade Fire, and earned a 2014 Best Original Score Oscar nomination for Her with William Butler. |
