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Rowena

#4,440 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning uncertain in the cited reference

Rowena has been given to 10,526 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #4,440 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1917, with 224 recorded.

Babies named Rowena, 2025

1 in 104,000

Rowena over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rowena: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning uncertain in the cited reference

Germanic languages, English and Old Saxon

What Rowena means

Rowena is a given name.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From the name of the daughter of Hengist and wife of Vortigern in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century pseudohistorical Latin work Historia regum Britanniae. There have been attempts to connect it to some unattested Old English or Common Brittonic name, but without any real evidence. It was revived after Walter Scott used it in his novel Ivanhoe (1819). Some places are named after Lady Rowena in the novel.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Rowena (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Rowena is used in English and Cebuano. Its origins include Germanic languages, English and Old Saxon.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,526 girls were recorded with the name Rowena between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 224 in 1917; its best national rank was #429 in 1893.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,130 in 2020 to #4,440 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #9,379 in 2015 to #4,440 in 2025.

How common is Rowena?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 104,000
32 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 50,200
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,440
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
71,810 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rowena 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 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 71,810 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rowena. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rowenas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rowena was born before 1937 — so the typical Rowena is around 88 today.

Median birth year
1937
About 88 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
16.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.9%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,883
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 16.9% of all recorded uses (1,774).

Is Rowena 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
−1,113
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,310
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+4,939
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.67×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.3%
Peak was 1917 (224)
Years since peak
108
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#429
1893

Spellings of Rowena

Rowena is not the most common spelling — Lorena is, with 24.1% against Rowena's 5.6%.

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.

Where Rowena is used

Across 1910–2025, Rowena was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 1,538 girls, against 1 in 27,263 across all states with data. It was least common in Utah (1 in —).

065 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 1,538
  2. 2Maine1 in 5,000
  3. 3Oklahoma1 in 8,333
  4. 4Kansas1 in 10,000
  5. 5Missouri1 in 11,111
  6. 6Louisiana1 in 12,500
  7. 7Kentucky1 in 14,286
  8. 8Indiana1 in 16,667

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Rowena has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rowena around the world

Where Rowena 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
    #3,035
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1975–2000
    #629
    in 2000
  • Ireland
    1968–2011
    #937
    in 2011
  • France
    1979–2024
    #4,033
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1992–2023
    #2,435
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1944–2013
    #536
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, 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. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Rowena

People whose public names include Rowena, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Rowena in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Rowena. Linked forms have their own page here.

RowanRowenRovenaRowennaRovéna

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Rowena by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,440
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,310
Best rank ever
#429
1893
Peak year
1917
224 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
10,526
Count in 2025
32

Names similar to Rowena

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

AleenaRowanMilenaMakenaJimenaRowynSalenaSheenaCelenaSienaMarlenaRowenMalenaDeenaKarenaAlenaSirenaArlenaXimenaHelenaLeenaKalenaEllenaSarena

Names with a curve like Rowena

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Rowena, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MargretLetaGeorgeDelmaLaurettaDorcasDelphineRethaAlvaEnidGermaineFreida

Sibling names for Rowena

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 Rowena

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