Bowan
- Gender
- Boy
- Say it
- BOH-en
- Origin
- Welsh
- US rank, 2025
- #6,799 for boys
Bowan is a boys' name of Welsh origin, meaning “son of Owen”. In 2025 it ranked 6,799th for boys in the US (12 babies).
What does Bowan mean?
Welsh: spelling of Bowen; surname from ab Owain
“son of Owen”
From the Welsh ab Owain, 'son of Owain', a common way Welsh surnames were formed.
Meaning borrowed from Bowen. More on Wiktionary.
Is Bowan a girl's or a boy's name?
Bowan is a boys' name. In 2025, it was given to 12 boys in the US. Too few girls were given it to be listed.
How popular is Bowan in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- 6,799th among boys
- Babies in 2025
- 12 about 1 in 140,000 boys
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to call too few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 boys
In 2025, 12 boys in the US were named Bowan, making it the 6,799th most popular name for boys. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 8,734th. Its busiest year was 2024, with 15 boys. It first appears in the records in 2002.
Half of all the boys named Bowan in the US since 1880 were born between 2014 and 2023, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 1,355 boys in the US were given Bowan or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #276, up from #6,799 for this spelling alone.
Bowan in the US, year by year
| Year | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #6,799 |
| 2024 | 15 | #5,899 |
| 2023 | 7 | #9,757 |
| 2022 | 6 | #10,855 |
| 2021 | 14 | #6,027 |
| 2020 | 8 | #8,734 |
| 2019 | 10 | #7,638 |
| 2018 | 5 | #12,150 |
| 2017 | 0 | – |
| 2016 | 5 | #12,180 |
| 2015 | 6 | #10,638 |
| 2014 | 5 | #12,102 |
| 2013 | 7 | #9,650 |
| 2012 | 5 | #12,267 |
| 2011 | 8 | #8,760 |
| 2010 | 0 | – |
| 2009 | 0 | – |
| 2008 | 5 | #12,546 |
| 2007 | 0 | – |
| 2006 | 0 | – |
| 2005 | 0 | – |
| 2004 | 0 | – |
| 2003 | 0 | – |
| 2002 | 5 | #10,660 |
Names like Bowan
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Finnegan, Declan, Callan, Ronan, Brayden, Kayden, Brecken, Cassian, Braylen, Raiden, Deacon, Lachlan
Other spellings of Bowan
Names related to Bowan
More Welsh names
Dylan, Owen, Winnie, Maddox, Morgan, Idris, Reese, Griffin, Rhys, Gavin, Reece, Nia, Seren, Gwendolyn, Winifred, Meredith
Sources
Figures from Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Bowan: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/bowan, updated 20 October 2026.