Bowen

Q: What stories are told about the Bowen family?

The Bowen family is associated with Elizabeth Bowen and The Last September. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

also ab Owen, ap Owain

Son of Owen, the patronymic of the great Welsh princely name.

Origin: Deheubarth, Wales
Famous bearer: Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973), novelist (The Death of the Heart, The Heat of the Day)
Register: Welsh family

Territory of Bowen

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Bowen

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Bowen community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Bowen has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Bowen clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

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What does the Bowen name mean?

From ab Owen, son of Owain (or Owen). Owain was one of the most prestigious personal names in mediaeval Welsh use, carried by Owain Glyndŵr (c.1359–c.1415), Owain Gwynedd (1100–1170), and several other princely figures. The patronymic ab Owen compressed into Bowen under Tudor naming policy, the b retained from ab and the apostrophe-O dropped. Bowen is overwhelmingly Welsh, with the densest concentrations in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.

The history of Bowen

The personal name Owain produced both Owen and Bowen as modern surnames, Owen from the simple patronymic 'son of Owen', and Bowen from the contracted ab Owen. The two surnames are in effect siblings, with Bowen densest in the southern Welsh counties (Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire) where the contracted form was more current at the time of Tudor surname compression. The diaspora carried Bowen heavily into the Welsh-American communities of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and into the southern Australian gold-rush districts of Ballarat and Bendigo.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973), the Anglo-Irish novelist of The Death of the Heart and The Heat of the Day, was descended from a Pembrokeshire-Bowen line that had emigrated to Co. Cork in the 17th century, Bowen's Court at Farahy was the ancestral seat. Jim Bowen (1937–2018), the Lancashire-born comedian who hosted Bullseye for 14 years on ITV, was of Welsh-Bowen ancestry. Roger Bowen (1932–1996), the American actor of M*A*S*H, was Welsh-American on his paternal side.

Champions of the Bowen name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Elizabeth Bowen
The Dublin-born Anglo-Irish novelist of The Last September (1929), The Death of the Heart (1938), The Heat of the Day (1949) and the great London Blitz short stories, who through the central thirty years of her career sat at the intersection of the Bloomsbury and Anglo-Irish literary worlds.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Bowen name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

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Walk Raglan Castle in 1645Enter →

The grandest castle-palace in Wales at its height — the moated Yellow Tower, fountain courts and long gallery, on the eve of the siege.

Notable bearers of the Bowen name

Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973), novelist (The Death of the Heart, The Heat of the Day)
Jim Bowen (1937–2018), comedian, host of Bullseye
Roger Bowen (1932–1996), actor (M*A*S*H film, Lt Col Henry Blake)

Stories of Bowen

Elizabeth Bowen and The Last September
1929
In the spring of 1929, in the writing-room of Bowen's Court, the Anglo-Irish Bowen family estate at Farahy near Kildorrery in north County Cork, Elizabeth Bowen, thirty years old, the only child and heir of the Bowen-family seat, completed her second novel The Last September (Constable, London, September 1929). The novel is set at a fictionalised Bowen's Court (called Danielstown) during the summer of 1920, in the final months of the Anglo-Irish War before the July 1921 truce and the December 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. The novel's nineteen-year-old protagonist, Lois Farquar, the orphaned niece of the Naylor family of Danielstown, lives through the summer of 1920 in the Big House's distorted social-routine while the IRA columns are burning Big Houses in the surrounding countryside; the novel closes with the burning of Danielstown by the local IRA flying-column in the autumn of 1920, a fictionalisation of what was, in plain reading, the Anglo-Irish-class-fate of the Bowen's-Court generation of small country-house gentry. The Last September is, by every careful judgment of twentieth-century Anglo-Irish literary criticism (Hermione Lee, Roy Foster, Maud Ellmann), the foundational novel of the Anglo-Irish Big House tradition and the pre-eminent fictional treatment of the Anglo-Irish War from the Big-House side.
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Frequently asked

What does the surname Bowen mean?

Where does the Bowen family come from?

The Bowen family is rooted in Deheubarth, in Wales. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Sir Benfro and Sir Gâr. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Bowen family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Bowen name has been concentrated in Ceredigion, Powys and Sir Fynwy. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Bowen a Wales surname?

Yes, Bowen is a Wales surname. Its editorial home in this atlas is Wales, where the historical territory and family record of the name are concentrated.

How old is the Bowen surname?

The personal name Owain produced both Owen and Bowen as modern surnames, Owen from the simple patronymic 'son of Owen', and Bowen from the contracted ab Owen. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Bowen name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Bowen family known for?

Son of Owen, the patronymic of the great Welsh princely name. The personal name Owain produced both Owen and Bowen as modern surnames, Owen from the simple patronymic 'son of Owen', and Bowen from the contracted ab Owen.

Who is the most famous Bowen?

The best-known bearer of the Bowen name is Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973), novelist (The Death of the Heart, The Heat of the Day). Other prominent figures of the family include Jim Bowen (1937–2018), comedian, host of Bullseye and Roger Bowen (1932–1996), actor (M*A*S*H film, Lt Col Henry Blake).

Who are some famous Bowens?

Notable bearers of the Bowen name include Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973), novelist (The Death of the Heart, The Heat of the Day), Jim Bowen (1937–2018), comedian, host of Bullseye and Roger Bowen (1932–1996), actor (M*A*S*H film, Lt Col Henry Blake). Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Bowen family?

The Bowen family is associated with Elizabeth Bowen and The Last September. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Elizabeth Bowen and The Last September?

In the spring of 1929, in the writing-room of Bowen's Court, the Anglo-Irish Bowen family estate at Farahy near Kildorrery in north County Cork, Elizabeth Bowen, thirty years old, the only child and heir of the Bowen-family seat, completed her second novel The Last September (Constable, London, September 1929). The novel is set at a fictionalised Bowen's Court (called Danielstown) during the summer of 1920, in the final months of the Anglo-Irish War before the July 1921 truce and the December 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. The event is dated to 1929.

Is ab Owen the same family as Bowen?

Yes. ab Owen is a historical spelling variant of the Bowen name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is ap Owain the same family as Bowen?

Yes. ap Owain is a historical spelling variant of the Bowen name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Bowen surname found today?

Wales is the primary historical home of the Bowen surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same Wales origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Bowen family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Bowen family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of Wales so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Bowen family today?

The seat for the head of the Bowen family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.