Bowen
Bowen was given to 1,292 boys in 2025, #266 among boys’ names; 13,513 Americans have been recorded with it since 1913 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 13,300 Americans named Bowen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 3 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bowen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bowen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bowen is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “son of Owen” (Owain).
From Welsh ap Owain (“son of Owen”).
/ˈboʊ.ən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bowen?
#266 among boys’ names, 2025
Bowen rose from #517 in 2015 to #266 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.29 to 0.76 per 1,000.
1,328 babies in 2025, the peak
Bowen peaked in 2025, when 1,328 babies were given it (1,292 boys, #266 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,077 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,292 | #266 | 0.76 |
| 2024 | 1,077 | #321 | 0.63 |
| 2023 | 941 | #349 | 0.55 |
| 2022 | 820 | #390 | 0.47 |
| 2021 | 889 | #368 | 0.51 |
| 2020 | 778 | #395 | 0.45 |
| 2019 | 709 | #433 | 0.40 |
| 2018 | 709 | #429 | 0.39 |
| 2017 | 660 | #459 | 0.36 |
| 2016 | 638 | #481 | 0.34 |
Every recorded year (90)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 557 | #517 | 0.29 |
| 2014 | 492 | #563 | 0.26 |
| 2013 | 430 | #590 | 0.23 |
| 2012 | 391 | #620 | 0.21 |
| 2011 | 315 | #722 | 0.17 |
| 2010 | 165 | #1,128 | 0.09 |
| 2009 | 128 | #1,349 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 129 | #1,335 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 174 | #1,071 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 138 | #1,216 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 144 | #1,132 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 120 | #1,250 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 129 | #1,159 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 100 | #1,323 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 105 | #1,262 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 116 | #1,174 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 102 | #1,226 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 101 | #1,214 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 92 | #1,251 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 58 | #1,654 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 43 | #1,952 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 39 | #2,082 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 26 | #2,707 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 26 | #2,674 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 31 | #2,294 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 27 | #2,489 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 12 | #4,290 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 13 | #3,723 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 21 | #2,565 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 17 | #2,901 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 22 | #2,363 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 18 | #2,623 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 15 | #2,933 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 10 | #3,989 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 24 | #2,141 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 19 | #2,542 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 14 | #3,024 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #5,893 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 14 | #2,923 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #4,482 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 11 | #3,267 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 9 | #3,587 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,739 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,492 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #4,007 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 12 | #2,750 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 10 | #2,885 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,399 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,023 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,011 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #3,269 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,644 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,685 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,674 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,129 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,092 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 11 | #2,546 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,582 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,038 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 8 | #2,972 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,167 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 7 | #3,128 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 10 | #2,511 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #3,052 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 10 | #2,515 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 9 | #2,553 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 6 | #3,141 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,168 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,540 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 8 | #2,670 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 7 | #2,940 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,272 | under 0.01 |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,509 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 6 | #3,908 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,367 | under 0.01 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,221 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 10 | #2,711 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 6 | #3,600 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,550 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 5 | #2,873 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bowen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 13,513 Americans recorded as Bowen, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 36 girls and 1,292 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Bowen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bowen, and how old are they?
13,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 13,513 Americans ever recorded as Bowen. The median Bowen alive today is 7 years old; half are between 3 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 7,909 people named Bowen (316 women and girls, 7,593 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,568 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 8 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 71 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 132 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 384 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,460 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,200 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Bowen born?
The states with the most babies named Bowen are Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, with 20% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 130 | #305 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 65 | #189 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 58 | #213 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 55 | #356 | 0.5× |
| California | 48 | #609 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 46 | #269 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 46 | #198 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 41 | #281 | 0.8× |
| South Carolina | 40 | #140 | 1.3× |
| Louisiana | 39 | #127 | 1.5× |
Where Bowen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bowen is most over-represented in Utah: since 1913 it was given 2.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Bowen with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 13,894 babies since 1880, Bowen is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,328 of their 1,372 babies (97%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Bowen
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Bowen and names like it
- Compare Bowen and BowynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sBowen peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bowen since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Bowen: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Bowen.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Bowen alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with BMost given first.