Owyn
Of Welsh origin, meaning "born of the yew tree".
Name Census estimates that about 830 living Americans carry the first name Owyn. It is a predominantly male name (90.7% of registrations). The average person named Owyn today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Owyn births was 2015 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Owyn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Owyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
830
~ 1 in 412,957 Americans
Peak year
2015
53 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,278
Tracked since 1997
Census
Owyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 686 people with the first name Owyn, which placed it at #16,449 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#16,449
National first-name rank
People counted
686
686 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Owyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Owyn is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.6%) and Hispanic (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Owyn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Owyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 552
- Two or more races7.6% · 52
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 50
- Black or African American2.5% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Owyn
Owyn leans heavily male at 90.7% of total registrations, but 78 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Owyn as a male name
- Ranked #4,278 in 2024
- 25 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (52 births)
Owyn as a female name
- Ranked #17,018 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Owyn leans strongly male. 613 people counted with this name were male (88.8%), compared with 77 female bearers (11.2%).
Popularity
Owyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Owyn from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 430 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Owyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Owyn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Owyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Owyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Ohio, Michigan recorded the most babies named Owyn, while Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Owyn
The name Owyn originates from the Welsh language and culture. It is a variant spelling of the name Owen, which is derived from the Welsh word "oen" meaning "lamb." The name Owyn likely emerged in Wales during the Middle Ages, a period when many familiar Welsh names were first recorded.
In Welsh mythology, the name Owyn may be connected to the legendary figure of Owain mab Urien, a prince and hero from the 6th century AD who appears in several ancient Welsh tales and poems. This association could suggest the name carried connotations of bravery and nobility in its earliest uses.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Owyn was a 14th century Welsh landowner and nobleman named Owyn ap Gruffydd. Records indicate he held estates in Anglesey and was a prominent figure in North Wales during the late 1300s.
In the 16th century, an Owyn Williams is mentioned in historical documents as a participant in the Battle of Towton in 1461, a major conflict in the Wars of the Roses between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. His role suggests the name was still in use among the Welsh gentry at that time.
Moving forward to the 19th century, Owyn Ellis (1808-1886) was a Welsh Anglican priest and author who wrote extensively on Welsh history, language, and literature. His works helped preserve many aspects of Welsh culture and traditions.
Another notable bearer of the name was Owyn Wyn Owen Pughe (1759-1835), a Welsh antiquarian, poet, and grammarian. He made significant contributions to the study of the Welsh language through his published writings on its grammar and etymology.
In the 20th century, Owyn Traharne (1908-1991) was a Welsh rugby union player who earned 11 caps for the Wales national team between 1930 and 1935. He played as a fly-half and was part of the Welsh team that won the Five Nations Championship in 1933.
People
Owyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Owyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Owyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Owyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 830 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Owyn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 412,957 US residents.
Is Owyn a common name?
We classify Owyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 837 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Owyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Owyn was 2015, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Owyn is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Owyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 686 people with the name Owyn, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,449 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Owyn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Owyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Owyn leans strongly male. 613 people counted with this name were male (88.8%), compared with 77 female bearers (11.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Owyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Owyn is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.6%) and Hispanic (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Owyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Owyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (552 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Owyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Owyn a male name?
Yes, 90.7% of people registered as Owyn in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Owyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Owyn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Owyn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Owyn?
Find out how many people have the name Owyn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.