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 [ 3 syll. ro-we-na, row-ena ] The girl name Rowena is pronounced RowIYNah KEY. 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), Rovena (Albanian and Portuguese), 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 2008. Baby names that sound like Rowena include Rowina (English), Ramana (Indian), Ramona (German and Spanish), Ranana, Raniyah (Arabic), Ranjana (Indian), Rawena (English), Reanan (English), Reenie (English), Reina (German, Spanish, Italian, and English), Remona (English), Remonna (English), Renana (English), Renia (Polish and German), Rhiana (English), Rhianen (English), Rhianna (English and Welsh), Rhiannen (English), Rhiannon (Welsh), and Rhianon (Welsh). KEY: 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)"   |
