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Owain

#10,407 in 2025Boys' name

Desire + birth, through Owein

Owain has been given to 151 babies in the U.S. since 1998. In 2025 it ranked #10,407 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2008, with 16 recorded.

Babies named Owain, 2025

1 in 474,000

Owain over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Owain: meaning, origin, and history

Desire + birth, through Owein

Welsh and Old Welsh

What Owain means

Owain belongs to the name family reached through Owain → Owain → Owein → *Awɨɣėn → *Awiganyos. Its meaning is “desire + birth”.

Origin, language, and formation

Owain is used in English and Welsh. Its origins include Welsh and Old Welsh.

Owain comes through Welsh Owain.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Owen, Owain, Owein, *Awɨɣėn and *Awiganyos.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Welsh, Owain is pronounced /ˈou̯ai̯n/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 151 boys were recorded with the name Owain between 1998 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 16 in 2008; its best national rank was #5,692 in 2008.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #13,536 in 2020 to #10,407 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #9,339 in 2015 to #10,407 in 2025.

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 Owain?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 244,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#10,407
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Owain sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 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 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Owain. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Owains were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Owain was born before 2010 — so the typical Owain is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
90.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
151
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.7% of all recorded uses (66).

Is Owain 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
+3,129
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,068
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.88×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
43.8%
Peak was 2008 (16)
Years since peak
17
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#5,692
2008

Spellings of Owain

Owain is not the most common spelling — Owen is, with 61.2% against Owain's 0.04%.

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.

Owain around the world

Where Owain 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
    1996–2025
    #1,466
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1998–2015
    #588
    in 2015
  • France
    1999–2017
    #3,337
    in 2017
  • Canada
    2002–2015
    #2,157
    in 2015
  • South Australia
    1977–2008
    #726
    in 2008

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

Owain by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#10,407
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 3,129
Best rank ever
#5,692
2008
Peak year
2008
16 that year
First recorded
1998
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
151
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Owain

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

OwaisCobainMclainGawainTwainNainHusainLainSylvainSwainAdainShainHasnainLorainDuainShazainMaclainCaptainXainMcclainEainShahzainBlainFain

Sibling names for Owain

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 Owain

Top names of 2008, Owain's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2008Boys' names starting with OWelsh Boy NamesWelsh Mythology Names