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Olwen

Girls' name

Footprint + white, fair, through Olwen

Olwen has been given to 27 babies in the U.S. since 1913. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1917, with 12 recorded.

Babies named Olwen, 2018

1 in 703,000

Olwen over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Olwen: meaning, origin, and history

Footprint + white, fair, through Olwen

Welsh

What Olwen means

Olwen belongs to the name family reached through Olwen → Olwen. Its meaning is “footprint + white, fair”.

Origin, language, and formation

Olwen is used in English and Welsh. Its origins include Welsh.

Olwen comes through Welsh Olwen.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Olwen.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Olwen is pronounced /ˈɒlwɛn/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 27 girls were recorded with the name Olwen between 1913 and 2018. Its highest annual count was 12 in 1917; its best national rank was #2,665 in 1917.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Olwen?

Olwen had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2018, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2018
1 in 703,000
5 of 3,516,853 births
Among girls only
1 in 340,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2018
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
487,541 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Olwen sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2018 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 487,541 children born in 2018 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Olwen. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Olwens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Olwen was born before 1917 — so the typical Olwen is around 108 today.

Median birth year
1917
About 108 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
81.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
5
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 81.5% of all recorded uses (22).

Is Olwen rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1917 (12)
Years since peak
108
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
140.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,665
1917

Spellings of Olwen

Olwen is not the most common spelling — Ellen is, with 77.8% against Olwen's <0.01%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Olwen around the world

Where Olwen ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2025
    #2,278
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1966–2017
    #873
    in 2017
  • France
    1995–2020
    #6,008
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1951–1991
    #669
    in 1991

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Olwen by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,665
1917
Peak year
1917
12 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
2018
All-time count
27
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Olwen

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

OlwynEllowenAnwenBowenLowenBlodwenBranwenWenOwenRowenArwenBronwenElowenCeridwenCerridwenGwen

Sibling names for Olwen

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Olwen

Top names of 1917, Olwen's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1917Girls' names starting with OWelsh Girl NamesWelsh Mythology Names