Olwen
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Meaning
white footprint; in the old tale of Culhwch and Olwen, white flowers spring up wherever she walks
How popular is Olwen around the world?
In the United States, Olwen is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source. In England and Wales, 12 girls named Olwen were born in 2025, ranked 2,278th among girls that year.
Olwen is on the official records of England and Wales.
United States
under 5 a year
In the United States, Olwen is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source.
Olwen appears in US Social Security baby-name records only in small numbers: never enough in any decade to draw a popularity curve.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
England and Wales
1 in 49,000
In England and Wales, 12 girls named Olwen were born in 2025, ranked 2,278th among girls that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Argentina
last on record 2015
Olwen is not on the 2024 record for Argentina, where small counts are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 2 in a year, too few to chart.
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Ireland
last on record 2017
Olwen is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 6 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
South Australia
last on record 1991
Olwen is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Olwen deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Olwen truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Olwen fits with your family’s names and surname.
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