Bowen
Small, stooping person derived from the Welsh word "bau", meaning hunchback.
Name Census estimates that about 11,960 living Americans carry the first name Bowen. It sits at #321 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.6% of registrations). The average person named Bowen today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bowen births was 2024 (1,106 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bowen. 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 Bowen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Bowen is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 290 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Bowen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,658 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,106 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#321
Tracked since 1913
Census
Bowen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,907 people with the first name Bowen, which placed it at #2,892 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
#2,892
National first-name rank
People counted
7.9K
7,907 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bowen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bowen is White at 74.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.2%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Bowen 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 Bowen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.7% · 5,908
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.2% · 1,280
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 297
- Two or more races3.7% · 293
- Black or African American0.8% · 67
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 62
Gender
Gender distribution for Bowen
Bowen leans heavily male at 97.6% of total registrations, but 290 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Bowen as a male name
- Ranked #321 in 2024
- 1,074 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,074 births)
Bowen as a female name
- Ranked #4,383 in 2024
- 32 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bowen leans strongly male. 7,593 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 316 female bearers (4.0%).
Popularity
Bowen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bowen from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,208 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bowen 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 Bowen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Bowens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Bowen, while Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 221 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Bowen
The given name Bowen has its origins in the Welsh language and culture. It is derived from the Welsh word "bown," which means "bulwark" or "fortification." This suggests that the name was likely given to individuals who exhibited strength and resilience, or possibly those who lived near or worked in fortified structures.
The name Bowen can be traced back to the early Middle Ages in Wales, where it was used as a personal name among the Welsh people. It was particularly popular in regions with strong Welsh cultural influences, such as Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bowen appears in the Brut y Tywysogion, a medieval Welsh chronicle dating back to the 13th century. The chronicle mentions a "Bowen ap Gruffydd" who was a Welsh nobleman and landowner in the region of Pembrokeshire during the late 12th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Bowen. One of the most prominent was Bowen Buckley (c. 1617-1687), a Welsh lawyer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament during the English Interregnum and the reign of Charles II.
Another notable figure was Bowen Braithwaite (1722-1799), an English Quaker minister and abolitionist who actively campaigned against the slave trade and advocated for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
In the realm of literature, Bowen Marsh (dates unknown) was a character in George R.R. Martin's acclaimed fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire." He was portrayed as a member of the Night's Watch, a brotherhood sworn to guard the northern borders of the Seven Kingdoms.
The name Bowen also gained prominence in the field of science with the British mathematician and inventor Bowen Cooke (1787-1857), who is credited with developing the first electric telegraph system and contributing to the early development of telegraphy.
Another notable individual was Bowen Buckley Brewster (1860-1941), an American lawyer and politician who served as the 46th Governor of Massachusetts from 1915 to 1917.
While the given name Bowen has its roots in Welsh culture, it has transcended geographical boundaries and has been adopted by individuals from various backgrounds and ethnicities throughout history.
People
Bowen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bowen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bowen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bowen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,960 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bowen 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 28,658 US residents.
Is Bowen a common name?
We classify Bowen as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,179 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bowen most popular?
The single biggest year for Bowen was 2024, when 1,106 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bowen is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bowen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,907 people with the name Bowen, or 2.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,892 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 Bowen 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 Bowen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bowen leans strongly male. 7,593 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 316 female bearers (4.0%). 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 Bowen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bowen is White at 74.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.2%) and Hispanic (3.8%). 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 Bowen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bowen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.7% (5,908 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 Bowen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bowen a male name?
Yes, 97.6% of people registered as Bowen 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 Bowen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bowen 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 Bowen 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 Bowen?
Find out how many people share the name Bowen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.