Owen

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A male given name of Welsh origin often used as a first name or surname
2. A personal name derived from an ancient Celtic word meaning "noble" or "young warrior" commonly found in English-speaking countries
3. An appellation traditionally given to males, signifying heritage or identity, with roots in Welsh culture and history

Etymology: Owen is a Welsh male given name whose history is tangled, because it draws on several separate sources that happened to produce the same form. The most familiar is the Welsh name Owain, a medieval name of uncertain meaning, which has been linked to the Latin "Eugenius" and to the Celtic root for "born" or "well-born," though none of these explanations is settled. Its later form Owen came to be used across Wales and, from the Tudor period onward, spread widely in England. The name's modern spelling also owes something to a separate English origin. Owen existed as an Old English and later Anglo-Norman personal name, so that the spelling was reinforced from two directions at once. Speakers who used the name in England and Wales therefore did not always share a single ancestry for it, and the same written form could stand for either line.