(origin: Celtic.) The good offspring. Oen, Welsh, and Gaelic, uan, a lamb.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

OWEN. A personal name in Wales. Most of our Owens are from that principality, but it is possible that a few may be of Saxon blood, for there is an Owiue in the Domesday of Yorkshire, and a still earlier Owiue occurs in the Codex Diplomaticus. It is one of the most common of Welsh surnames. As I have elsewhere observed in this volume, the commonness of AVelsh patronymics has tended to a great confusion of the ' gentle ' and the ' simple ' in Wales. There are thousands of Owens who bear that name simply because their grandfathers or perhaps their fathers bore it as a Christian name. In ancient families the patryuomic became a statiouarj' family name about the tunes of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.