Meaning and history
Meaning uncertain. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth used this name for a daughter of the Saxon chief Hengist, and it has been suggested, though without evidence, that he derived it either from Old English hroð meaning “fame” and wynn meaning “joy,” or from Old Welsh ron meaning “spear” and gwen meaning “white.” The name was later popularized by Walter Scott, who gave it to a character in his novel Ivanhoe (1819).
20062006: 15 births, rank #7,868
2007: 10 births, rank #10,818
2008: 12 births, rank #9,476
2009: 14 births, rank #8,454
2010: 7 births, rank #13,448
20112011: 15 births, rank #7,783
2012: 11 births, rank #9,711
2013: 11 births, rank #9,612
2014: 14 births, rank #8,053
2015: 12 births, rank #8,931
20162016: 19 births, rank #6,401
2017: 22 births, rank #5,661
2018: 29 births, rank #4,662
2019: 28 births, rank #4,773
2020: 51 births, rank #3,091
20212021: 33 births, rank #4,245
2022: 39 births, rank #3,827
2023: 37 births, rank #3,984
2024: 48 births, rank #3,277
20252025: 32 births, rank #4,352
Rowena moved from #883 to #963 for girls between 1962 and 1963. Its highest annual birth count came in 1917, with 224 births.