I love The Lord of the Rings. And I’m not talking about “I’ve seen the movies, omg Aragorn is so hawt” love. I’m talking “read the series countless times, slogged through the Silmarillion, plan to read more of Tolkien’s literature, want wedding bands engraved in Elvish or Dwarvish” love. So you could say I’m a bit of a fangirl.
Which brings us to today’s topic: Eowyn. Its usability, particularly, and whether or not I’d use it over another LOTR name. The name itself is pretty, the character admirable (better than Arwen by miles and quite the proto-feminist) and the sound easy to grasp. I actually knew an Eowyn in high school, and she never had any problems that I knew of.
Now then, the problem with Eowyn. Fangirl much? I feel as though to name a child Eowyn is to brand her with the nerd stamp early. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a nerd (says the girl who writes a blog on names), but it feels a little presumptuous to decide that your child will be connected to a piece of well known literature for all time. This isn’t usually a problem with naming after characters, since most names are pretty well used anyway. For example, I have Jane for Austen and Eyre on my lists. It’s not like someone would go “Oh, like Austen!” upon meeting a little Jane. However, can you think of anything else besides the Rohirrim upon meeting Eowyn? The pronunciation also gives me fits: Ay-oh-win seems to be the accepted one, but it’s wrong, technically. It should be more like “ear-win,” but that’s not nearly as pretty.
There are some other LOTR/general Tolkien names I’d probably use before Eowyn: Lorien and Elanor, maybe Melian (hi!). Peregrine for boys. However, I’ve been finding Eowyn’s sound appealing lately.
All in all, I’d probably use Eowyn in the middle to honor my nerd-dom, if I were to use it at all. Elanor is a more likely choice for me, though.
What do you think of Eowyn? Usable? What about in the middle?
Moniker Madness! 
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Eowyn’s definitely usable! I know two of them, one’s a little older than you (probably 22 or so) the other’s 43! It would make a lovely middle name; Alice Eowyn comes to mind immediately. I admit, it is quite fangrrrlbut unlike others, she’s at least a worthy namesake. Eowyn’s the kick ass chick and as such, i’d much rather meet a hoire of Eowyn’s over one more Arwen. Gods, I’m not even going to start on how much Arwen bugs me.
Eowyn’s awesome!
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Hi! 😉
I love this name. Eowyn and Elanor are my two favorites from Tolkien. And Melian, of course.
I’m with you…not really sure whether it’s usable in real life or not.
Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Yeah, Arwen annoys the pants off of me. I’m glad you find it usable:don’t be surprised if you start seeing it in the middle! I think Elanor and crowd are still more like for me, though.
Thanks Melian! It’s always good to see people who like Tolkien names. A lot of people are like “ergh nerd name!”
Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Eowyn is very pretty! I’m not much of a Lord of the Rings fans (seen the movies, feel like I SHOULD get around to the books at some point, but haven’t yet). I love her mystical medieval maiden feel, though.
I agree that Elanor is more usable, but I wouldn’t mind seeing (or even being) an Eowyn. Literary names are awesome, and I’m all for them!
Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Thanks Emmy Jo!
Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
My wife and I named our daughter Eowyn. My wife was, like you, very much into the literature works of Tolkien. She has read everything ever produced by Tolkien (including the incomplete books) and also many books about him.
Our daughter is now five and we have never had any problems besides having to correct the spelling at occasions. Almost everyone we meet loves the name and only a few makes the connection between the name and LOTR.
I don’t think you should worry about the nerd/geek label. It wont happen. The ones who makes the connections are most likely LOTR-geeks themselves.
Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Hey Swiper! I find that most seem to think it is “Irish.” Of course they mean Welsh but they don’t know that. It’s interesting that even with the movies, people don’t make the connection.
It’s great to get feedback from the actual dad of an Eowyn; thanks!
Sunday, October 31st, 2010 at 2:20 am
wedding bands that perform with classical instruments are the best!_
Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 4:08 am
you can hire wedding bands that play very well with just a few hundred dollars :
Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
battle…
[…]The Eowyn Dilemma « Moniker Madness![…]…
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 at 8:15 pm
I only have sons, but I’m currently pregnant, and if I have a daughter, I’m definitely naming her Eowyn (with the accent mark 😉 I love Lorien, too, and I think Tori Amos used that as her daughter’s middle name. I have been a Tolkien fan since I was 7, and read The Hobbit, LOTR, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and more way before the movies were made. I think that most people won’t even recognize it from LOTR unless they mistake it for Arwen. Ha! 😉 I had a friend named Galadriel (we were born in the 70’s, and her parents loved Tolkien). Before the movies, no one had ever heard of her name, but she had a great story, and everyone found it interesting. She is in her 30’s now and definitely not a nerd. Plus, she has a very unique naming story. I love unusual and literary names, especially for girls. Isolde is also on my name list. Great post! 🙂
Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 at 11:18 am
We named our daughter Eowyn, and her nickname is Winnie, or often just “Wyn”. Sometimes she wants to be called Eowyn, and other times introduces herself as Winnie, which is a very approachable variation. She loves being associated with such a strong character, and it might just be my biased perception, but she seems to embody some of the literary Eowyn’s traits.
Saturday, July 23rd, 2016 at 10:03 pm
Our oldest daughter’s name is Eowyn. You are correct that it links her to nerdery immediately. Thankfully she doesn’t mind. She heard stories about her namesake all the time when she was little, and even saw the parallels to the legend of Mulan. By the time she was in fifth grade she had read the books herself, and added the acute to her name so that she regularly writes it as Éowyn. So, as far as she is concerned, no harm done. She’s quite proud of her name.
A few people do make the connection to the book, to the movies, or to both, but most people do not do this. The biggest challenge we (and now she) have had to face have been the people who have no idea how to pronounce her name once they have seen it written, or how to write it once they have heard it pronounced.
People also often have assumed it to be from some Gaelic language, either Cornish, Welsh or Irish; and often are surprised to hear that it technically has an Anglo-Saxon etymolgy.
The only downside is that her name is distintly exotic but her sisters’ names, not so much. We named them Ruth and Anne. The assumption is that I picked the first name and after that my wife refused to let me have a say.
Friday, August 11th, 2017 at 12:15 am
We have a 7-year-old Eowyn and it really has not been an issue. Most common misspelling has been Edwyn, which never crossed my mind. A playmate’s mom came up with the explanation that pronounced properly it sounds like a little kid saying Erin as she thought that was what her daughter was saying and was admonished soundly, haha! “No, mom! Her name is Eowyn!!”
Reactions we get pretty much boil down to “Wow, that’s pretty! I’ve never heard that one before!”, “Is that Irish?” and “Like, LOTR?!?”
My joke is that we followed the trend of two-syllable names ending in ‘n’ – i.e., Aiden, Braden, Caden, Declan, Eowyn…
Friday, August 11th, 2017 at 7:53 am
We actually had to have our daughter’s birth certificate corrected, because the typist misread it as Edwyn. We never saw that one coming either,but fortunately it hasn’t happened since.
Friday, August 11th, 2017 at 8:19 am
Haha! I know, right? First time was a letter from our City Health Department – To The Parents of Edwyn Victoria S… I was like really? It does kind of makes sense if they just glance and someone wrote the O sloppily, I just never thought of it.