Owen: boring or classic?

[crabette]

Thinking of Owen for a boy's name.

Can't quite decide if it's in the cool category of being underused; classic; known and pronounceable but a bit unusual / quirky; strong; and masculine.... which is entirely what I want.

....or if I'm just being boring! What do you guys think?

Our fave girls option is Nina, if that helps in terms of our style.

I have an Owen!

Have never regretted it. It's a classic name, not over-used, easy to spell, easy to pronounce in different languages/accents, and it suits both little boys and grown men. Go for it!

Classic. Im Welsh if that makes a difference

Beautiful name.
Are you Welsh? If so what about Ioan.
Either way he’ll have a great name.

Classic!

Not Welsh! And no Welsh heritage either. (Both Scottish.)
Not sure if that makes a difference to the responses!

What about Owen spelt Eoin? My son's spelling. He's Scottish

I like it. It is a nice, classic Welsh name. Not that I am Welsh, but I do think it has a lovely sound to it.

Owen. Classic. No name is boring when it belongs to a person.

I think it means "river".

Classic Welsh name. Really nice. I'm Welsh so may be biased!

Not that common, as 455 registered as that last year, and not at all boring.

names.darkgreener.com/#owen

I love the name ❤️

What about Owain, which I think is the original spelling

I think it means of noble birth.
I think of it more as a surname.

The welsh version, Owain,is nicer as a first name but probably not in Scotland.

I like it spelt as Eoin.

Eoin isn't a variant spelling of Owen.

Eoin is an Irish form of John. Owen is Welsh and means 'noble'. They sound similar (not the same) but are otherwise unconnected.

I like both a lot.

@phantomish (& @DramaAlpaca !) - Being in Scotland, I know quite a few Ewan / Euan's round here - so while Eoin is really lovely, I'd worry about it getting mixed up in pronounciation / being too close to friends' baby names for us to use it here!

Owain is lovely too, but I think given neither of us are Welsh nor living in Wales, the anglicised version might be best.

Enjoying that generally people seem to like it though!

@MikeUniformMike That's so funny, I hadn't considered it as a surname at all until you said that. Michael Owen I guess. Not sure I've ever met anyone with the surname though.

I know lots of people with the surname Owen, although unfortunately not Michael.

Other welsh 'surnames' that can be first names are Vaughan (same meaning as Buchan) and Lloyd, and I suppose Rees. Not keen on Rees, but the others are fine. I really like Lloyd as a first name.

Owain is pronounced like Owen but the ai bit is like 'eye', but people sometimes tend to say it as Owen.

I also think of Lewis or Fraser as more of a surname than a first name.

Forgot to add that Lloyd has the same meaning as Gray.

Owen is fine btw.

Owen is a wonderful name.
I am biased because my son is called Owen and I still love it as much as ever.

I haven't met an Owen for years. It's a really nice name.

Can't stand it. Purely because the woman opposite me in hospital who had a c section said his name in such a droll way any time he cried. Oowweennnn oweennn

It just sounded like a moan to me.

I like it. Classic, will work for him at any age.

Great name.
Strong, masculine and outdoorsy is the image I get

Another mother of an Owen here!

I'm half Scottish half English and my husband is English. He didn't like any Scottish names I suggested so I vetoed anything ordinarily English!

Luckily I have a half Welsh grandmother so I trawled the Welsh section of the name book and came up with Owen! My grandmother cried when she heard what we named him so I earned brownie points there.

Strong, easy to spell and suits a little boy as much as an adult - thought it couldn't be shortened but i am the worst for calling him O, Little O and Owie

Boring but looks like I am in the minority!