This interesting surname has two origins. Firstly, it can be of Welsh origin, being a patronymic form of the Welsh personal name "Owain", itself coming from the Latin "Eugenius", which derives from the Greek "Eugenios", meaning well-born or noble, with the Welsh patronymic element "ab" or "ap", son of; hence, "son of Owen". Secondly, it can be of Irish origin, being an Anglicized form of the Gaelic "O'Buadhachain", the prefix "O", meaning grandson or descendant of, and "Buadhach", a personal name meaning "victorious"; hence, "descendant of Buadhach". The surname dates back to the late 13th Century (see below), and John Bowen was recorded in the 1305 Register of the Freemen of the City of York. In the modern idiom the surname can be found recorded as Bowen, Boohan, Bohane, (O)Boughoan and (O)Boghan. Daniell, son of John Abowen, was christened at St. Peter's, Cornhill, London, in 1568. Charles Synge Christopher Bowen, Baron Bowen (1835 - 1894) was a judge; having been educated at Rugby and Balliol College in Oxford. Thomas Bowen, aged 26 yrs., a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Cambridge", bound for New York, in May 1846. The Coat of Arms most associated with the family is a blue shield with a gold lion rampant within an orle of gold roses, the Crest being an arm couped at the elbow and erect habited black cuffed ermine holding in the hand proper a chaplet of laurel green. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Madocus ap Oweyn, which was dated 1292, in "Placita de Que Warranto", Shropshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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