Rowan or Roman? Which is better?

[Glitterball01]

Exactly that, which name is better for a boy? And why?
Thanks !!

Apparently the “Rowan” tree is actually pronounced to rhyme with Row (as in argument) or Cow. The name is pronounced that way in Scotland apparently.

Ah, like Rowntree the chocolate brand! That makes sense now..

Rowan. Much classier & sounds nicer

I prefer Rowan.

The 2 Rohans I've known both pronounce it the same as Rowan.

Neither are great but Rowan

Rowan is classy, won't date and sounds like a regular name.
Roman, on the other hand, appears to have risen to prominence more recently, and will probably date. I am aware of two Romans, and they have siblings with names like Tyson, Aaliyah and Romeo. A bit niche and younique. Also, I can't shake the association with the most famous Roman, the paedophile film director.

Rowan

Don't like Roman at all. To me it's a historical person like Egyptian or Saxon! It's also becoming very popular.

Rowan. Lovely, classic name.

Rowan

I much prefer Roman. I think it's a great name. Rowan seems better suited to a girl imo.

Rowan

@WomanIsTaken can I ask why you think Rowan “won’t date”? I’m only asking in a friendly way by the way because I’m interested. To me both names Rowan AND Roman are going to date very quickly because both have never been in the top 100 ever throughout whole of history and now they are both fastest rising names (Rowan currently failing behind but catching up). It looks like both will reach top 20 soon on current growth trajectories and then presumably public will get very sick of two so similar sounding names (think: Tracey and Stacey perhaps??) and both names will fall out of favour and be this generations Darren for example. Surely both names are the epitome of current trendy names that will date?

I know names like Arthur for example are growing in popularity at the moment but those kind of names have been in and out of the top 100 throughout history so surely they don’t date in the same way that names like Darren, Tracey, Roman, Rowan will?

If I had to pick then, for a boy, I’d definitely chose Roman (nickname Rome) as Rowan is getting increasingly used for girls especially in America but the same is starting to happen here. It’s a girls name in Scotland where it originated.

Have you got any alternatives?

I work in paediatrics and there’s so many Roman, Rowan, Rohan, Roan’s coming through at the moment. Yawn. When there’s so many lovely names to pick from, I’d avoid one that’s super trendy and confusing.

I prefer Roman by a mile because of the much nicer shortening. Both will inevitably get shortened and Rome a lot nicer than Row (row row your boat).

I agree with all the PP who have said Rowan is more of a feminine/girls name, so I wouldn’t do that to my son.

Neither name is to my taste to be honest though. Too trendy and FAD-y.

Flava, good question. I suppose I can think of mature adult male Rowans, but no adult Romans. Roman seems a more recent favourite, whereas Rowan is traditional. Rowan is like Lucy, Roman is like Mollee-Mae. Rowan and Roman are only comparable here because of a recent appreciation of R names. Well, that's my 2 pence, anyway.

Rowan is a great name.

Roman not so much. I always think "Roman what?" Ruins? Mythology?

@WomanIsTaken yep agree with that on the Lucy vs Mollee-May.
I like Rowan or Rohan.

Prefer Roman.
Row-Anne - very feminine sounding. Would have maybe considered for a girl before it got all trendy and ubiquitous. All the baby Rowan’s I know are girls so I’m not surprised to see that graph posted, once that’s starts happening, it reaches a certain point and people completely stop using the name for boys anymore and run a mile. Like what happened with the name Hillary. Used to be mainly male name. Girls started using it and it stopped being used anymore for boys early in the 1900s.

Not keen on either, but I will add that none of the Rowans I’ve met were classy! The one Roman I knew was from a French aristocratic family I au paired for decades ago.

I prefer Roman.

Rowan is popular in this area so based on that I'd choose Roman

Rowan is a lovely nature name.

Roman (unless you have the heritage to carry it off) sounds like a trendy celeb following name.

@BadCatDirtyCat, Roman Polanski?

@MikeUniformMike that's another reason to chose Rowan!

Ha! surprised you find the two names so different DirtyCat! With my baby daughter Rowan, we just get comments like “so is that Ro_an with an M, N, W or a H?” Not what I was hoping for! It’s definitely a new thing. 2 years ago the names were much more unusual now they seem to merge into one because there’s quite a few of each locally.

Rowan Morrison is a girl character in the Wickerman

Roman Polanski and Roman Cassavetes = Rosemary's Baby

But those movies are old so..either should be ok I guess.