Bowen — Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: not applicable; Welsh-Norman origin
Meaning: from Welsh ap Owen, 'son of Owen'
Traditional stronghold: Cork, Kerry
Pronunciation: BOH-en
History of the Bowen name
Bowen came to Ireland with Welsh and English settlers from the 16th and 17th centuries and became established chiefly in Cork and Kerry as a landed Anglo-Irish family. The name itself is Welsh in origin, from ap Owen, 'son of Owen'. The Bowens of Kilbolane in Cork became a notable minor gentry family, and the surname is remembered in Irish literary history through one of its most distinguished 20th-century bearers, born into the family's Cork estate at Bowen's Court.
Variants: Bowin · Boween · Bohun
Famous bearers of the name
- Elizabeth Bowen — Anglo-Irish novelist and short-story writer, author of The Death of the Heart
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Murphy · O'Sullivan · O'Connor · McCarthy · Daly · O'Connell · Collins · Fitzgerald