Owen

Two separate Celtic names meet in Owen. Wiktionary describes it as an anglicisation of both the Welsh Owain and the Irish Eoghan, so a boy called Owen in Cardiff and one in Cork may carry quite different family histories under the same five letters.

The Welsh strand is the older on paper. Owain grew out of Old Welsh spellings such as Ougein and Eugein. Behind the Name suggests these may come from the Latin Eugenius, which in turn goes back to Greek eugenes, 'well-born' - the meaning most baby-name lists repeat. The same entry offers Celtic alternatives too: an element meaning 'sheep', 'good' or 'desire', joined to one meaning 'born of'. Wiktionary even reverses the direction, treating medieval Latin Eugenius as a borrowing from the Welsh name rather than its source. On the Irish side the trail is clearer: Eoghan is traced to Proto-Celtic Iwogenos, 'born of the yew'.

Owain travelled well. Medieval French romance turned him into Yvain, a knight of King Arthur's court, Scotland has Ewan and Euan, and Welsh has a feminine Owena. As a father's name it also left surnames behind, among them Owens and Bowen.

In British English it is said OH-in, two quick syllables with the stress at the front. Its brevity makes room for a longer middle name, as in Owen Frederick or Owen Alexander. Siblings with a Welsh ring might be Dylan or Morgan for a brother and Elin or Ella for a sister.