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 [ 2 syll. ro-wan, row-an ] The boy name Rowan is sometimes used as a girl name. Its pronunciation is ROWahN KEY. Rowan is largely used in the English and Irish languages, and its origin is Celtic. The name is of the meaning little ruddy one, little red-haired one. The name is derived from the surname, itself Anglicized from the Irish Gaelic nickname Ruadhán meaning 'little red-haired one' and of the Gaelic 'ruadh' (red). It could also be from the English vocabulary word for the rowan plant, which is itself of Scandinavian origin. The name was borne by two Irish saints in the 5th and 6th centuries, and was therefore widely adopted in Ireland. It was later taken up by English speakers in the 20th century. Rohan (Indian and English), Ruadhan (Irish), and Ruadhán (Irish) are variants of Rowan. Other forms of Rowan include the variant spellings Roan (English) and Rowen (English). See also the related form, Roy (English, Dutch, French, German, and Scottish). Rowan is fairly popular as a baby name for boys, and it is also considered trendy. The name's popularity has been increasing since the 1990s; before that, it was of very light use only. At the modest height of its usage in 2008, 0.044% of baby boys were given the name Rowan. Its ranking then was #340. Within all boy names in its group, Rowan was the most popular in 2008. Rowan was more widely used than the next most popular name, Roy (English, Dutch, French, German, and Scottish), by 76% in that year. Rowan has in the past century been predominantly given to boys. In 2007, 16% more boys than girls were given the name Rowan. Baby names that sound like Rowan include Rohan (Indian and English), Rollon (Spanish), Rowen (English), Raheem (English), Rahim (Arabic and Iranian), Rahman (Turkish), Raimon (English), Raini, Rama (Indian), Ramey (English), Rami (Arabic and Iranian), Ramin (Iranian), Ramon (Spanish), Ramone (English and Spanish), Ramón (Spanish), Ramy (English), Ranen (Hebrew), Ranon (Hebrew), Rayan (Arabic and Iranian), and Raymon (English and Spanish). A famous person named Rowan is Actor, Rowan Atkinson, born 6 January 1955, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. KEY: Pronunciation for Rowan: R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; OW as in "oat (OW.T)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)"   |
