The baby name Eowyn combines a stylish sound with an impressive hero. What’s not to love?
Thanks to Lora for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME EOWYN MEAN?
To talk about the baby name Eowyn, we have to talk about the author J.R.R. Tolkien.
Every writer chooses character names. Many writers of fantasy invent those names.
Tolkien invented entire languages.
An academic by profession, Tolkien taught at Oxford. He contributed to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary. His expertise included Old English and Middle English, Anglo-Saxon, as well as medieval Welsh, Gothic, and other languages. It all shows in the languages we invented for The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
So he invented the name Eowyn – actually, Éowyn – from real pieces of Old English.
Her name means “horse joy.” That tracks. She is the niece of King Théoden of Rohan. It’s the land of the Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, warriors famed for their skills on horseback.
More on her story in a minute.
In Old English, eoh means horse. We’re tempted to connected -wyn to the Welsh gwyn, meaning white, fair, or blessed. You might see a meaning like “white horse” given, which is lovely – but not consistent with the language Tolkien created.
He also gives us Eomer – a combination of horse and famous, actually used in Anglo-Saxon.
HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE EOWYN?
The character’s name is typically pronounced AY oh win in the US, but eh oh win and ee oh win seem to be possible options, too.
Thanks to the movies, though, the long A vesion of the name is widely known.
THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING
Back to the character.
Miranda Otto played Eowyn, who we first meet in the second movie of the trilogy, The Two Towers.
She’s intelligent, fierce, and beautiful. Eowyn is also trained to fight, though she’s typically left behind while others ride into battle.
There’s a lot going on when we meet her, but let’s skip to the good part. King Théoden takes his troops into battle against the evil forces of Mordor. Eowyn, in disguise, rides along with him. (She takes Merry the Hobbit along, too.)
At the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, her uncle is killed by Witch-king of Angmar. Thanks to an ancient belief, Glorfindel’s prophecy, it’s said that the Witch-king cannot be killed by the hand of a living man.
As her uncle falls, Eowyn whips off her helmet, declares “I am no man!” and sends the Lord of the Nazgûl to his death.
Despite this dramatic moment, Eowyn isn’t as well-known as the other Tolkien characters – she’s not Frodo or Gandalf or even Aragorn.
She does get her happy ending though. At the end of the last movie, we see the rightful king finally take his throne. During the coronation of King Elessar, she is shown beside Faramir. We learn that she becomes the Lady of Ithilien and they live happily ever after.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME EOWYN?
The baby name Eowyn debuted in US popularity data in 1973, with five births.
It rose again, with 64 girls receiving the name in 2004, the year after Eowyn’s big battlefield moment in the final big screen installment of the trilogy.
Since then, Eowyn has slowly gained in use. While it has never ranked in the US Top 1000, 114 girls born in the US were named Eowyn in 2023.
It’s possible we’ll hear even more in 2024 and 2025. The animated Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim debuted in December 2024. While the story takes place long before the Lady of the Shield-Arm rode into battle, Eowyn narrates the story. (In fact, it’s Miranda Otto playing the voice role.)
But there’s more to consider.
STYLISH SOUND
When the baby name Eowyn first popped up in the data in the 1970s, Lord of the Rings was having a moment. Led Zeppelin wrote lyrics about it. (Did they get the facts wrong? Yes. But it helped the stories fit into the cultural moment.) A 1978 animated movie was even made.
Born in 1979, Christian alt rock recording artist Éowyn was born Rebecca Éowyn. She’s said in interviews that her name comes from the character, thanks to her dad‘s affection for the Lord of the Rings character.
Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Eowyn Ivey was born in 1973, also directly named for the character.
The name got another boost in the early 2000s from the movies.
Today there’s the Prime video series The Rings of Power.
But there’s also the sound. The Cornish Elowyn has entered the US Top 1000. Eowyn sounds a little like Eloise and Evelyn and Naomi, plus lots of long A names.
On the negative side, Storm Éowyn hit the United Kingdom and Ireland in early 2025. The winds set records in Scotland. As storm names go, it’s quite memorable. (More on the name list here.)
That combination of the character’s tremendous courage in the LotR series and an oh-so current sound could make Eowyn a great choice for a daughter’s name – as a middle or a first – now.
What do you think of the baby name Eowyn?
First published on March 7, 2013, this post was revised and republished on February 11, 2025.
We have an Eowyn Merry about to be 1yo as of mid September. ❤
What a lovely name, Kail!
We named our youngest daughter Eowyn Florence Hope. My husband and I both grew up reading LOTR and love her character and the fact that many people don’t immediately associate it with the books/movie but it’s fun when people do know the character. I thought about putting the accent in but it seemed like it would be a pain on official documents so we left it out. I haven’t met any other Eowyn’s yet, but I have met people who know them.
What a gorgeous name, Michelle!
My granddaughter is named Éowyn Rose. My son and his ex-wife are both huge LOTR fans. Interestingly, there is another Éowyn at her school. She was born in 2012.
Named my precious girl Eowyn Wrigley. She is a wonderful and sweet girl. I hope she can have courage someday in the face of adversity like her Tolkien Character.
What a lovely name, Chelsey! Thanks for sharing.
We have an eowyn marie…and she is prefect and embraces her name…
My daughter is named Éowyn Mathilde – Happy horse, Strong girl. she loves her name, however ‘different’ it is, but I wanted her to be named Abigail (my father’s joy) Mathilde. Éowyn is a beautiful name and she is a beautiful girl.
My daughter is named Éowyn.
For a long time, I was determined to get Eowyn in the middle spot for my daughter. I think it’s entirely possible that my husband relinquished his first choice name choice because it sounded better with Eowyn middle than the name we eventually went with. We still went literary, but names that are not original to the work they are taken from.
I always liked the character in the book, actually, more than any of the other female characters. There’s a very nice love story associated with her as well as her heroic deeds. It would probably go over better than some of the other real wen names I love, it has a very pretty sound to it. I remember meeting an Arwen before, possibly more than once, well before there were any popular movies and the only people who knew the names were Tolkien book fans. I love meeting people with these names, even though they are literary inventions, they are not in the class of modern inventions like the ones you mentioned. More along the lines of Shakespeare, I think. Eowyn is my favorite name from the books, I believe.
LOVE Eowyn. I love the soft sound, love the history, love LOTR. She’s a great character too, emotional and beautiful yet powerful and brave.
My daughter’s name is Eowyn Faye. She was born in 2006. She has grown to be beautifuly delicate yet amazing strong and fierce just like the character.
And yes I am a Tolkien nerd.
Gorgeous combination, Jessica – glad to hear the name wears well!