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Rowena - Meaning of the name

Meaning of the name Rowena

[ 3 syll. ro-we-na, row-ena ] The girl name Rowena is pronounced RowIYNah †. Rowena's language of origin is Old English. It is predominantly used in English, German, and Welsh. The name could be from Hrodwyn (Old English), of the element hrod ('fame') and wine ('friend'), or else it could be from Rhonwen (Old Welsh), of the Welsh rhon ('spear, pike') and gwen ('white, fair, blessed, holy') meaning 'slender and fair'. The name was borne by the legendary 5th century Rowena, the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon leader Hengest; she appeared as the Saxon heroine of Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe (1819), which subsequently boosted the popularity of the name.

Variants of Rowena include Rawena (English), Roenna, Rovena (Albanian and Portuguese), Roweena, and Rowina (English). The short forms Rhona (English), Ron (English), and Rona (English), and the pet form Ronnie (English) are other variants of the name.

Rowena is a rare baby girl name. At the modest peak of its usage in 1917, 0.020% of baby girls were named Rowena. It was #429 in rank then. The baby name has steeply dropped in popularity since then, and is of only very light use today. Out of all girl names in its family, Rowena was nevertheless the most popular in 2009.

Baby names that sound like Rowena include Roweena, Rowina (English), Ramana (Indian), Ramina, Ramona (German and Spanish), Ranana, Rania, Raniyah (Arabic), Ranjana (Indian), Rawena (English), Reanan (English), Reenie (English), Reina (German, Spanish, Italian, and English), Remona (English), Remonna (English), Renai, Renana (English), Renea (English), Renia (English, Polish, and German), and Rhiana (English).

 



† Pronunciation for Rowena: R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; OW as in "oat (OW.T)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"


 
Popularity Trend
for Rowena
from 1900 to 2009
Variant Popularity Chart
for Rowena
in 2009
 

Meaning of Rowena Meaning of Rona Meaning of Rhona Meaning of Ron Meaning of Ronnie Meaning of Roweena Meaning of Rovena Meaning of Roenna Meaning of Rawena Meaning of Rowina Meaning of Ronli Meaning of Veronica Meaning of Rhonda Meaning of Ron Meaning of Ronnie Meaning of Aaron Meaning of Ronald