Bowden
About Bowden
An English surname and place name, typically referring to someone who lives by or at the top of a hill, Bowden has similar sounds to other popular choices like Bodhi and Brody, or to Rowdy and Howie, depending in which pronunciation you choose to use. Also appearing as Boden or Beauden, it can also relate to the German word for "floor", to the French Beau, meaning "beautiful", or to the Old English name Bucge, meaning "fortress".
While Beauden is in the charts in the UK and New Zealand and Boden features in the US, Bowden is comparatively rarer. This may change in coming years, after dancer Dianne Buswell and YouTuber Joe Sugg chose it for their son born in 2026. The stars have chosen to pronounce it BOW-duhn (bow to rhyme with cow), though BO-duhn (Bo to rhyme with slow) is acceptable too.
Pronounced BOW-dn.
As of October 2026, Bowden ranked #1944 in US births in 2025 SSA.
Editor's take: The name Bowden is a boy's name of English origin meaning "bow hill".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | #3,449 | 32 | 16.9 |
| 2017 | #2,761 | 44 | 23.8 |
| 2018 | #3,455 | 32 | 17.6 |
| 2019 | #3,806 | 28 | 15.6 |
| 2020 | #3,078 | 37 | 21.4 |
| 2021 | #3,077 | 39 | 22.3 |
| 2022 | #3,283 | 36 | 20.6 |
| 2023 | #2,738 | 47 | 27.5 |
| 2024 | #2,595 | 51 | 29.6 |
| 2025 | #1,944 | 79 | 46.3 |
World rankings
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