Rowen

The red berries give it away. Rowen is a spelling variant of Rowan, the mountain ash tree the Celts planted beside their doors to discourage mischief — a tree that turns brilliant in autumn, whose berries feed the birds through the lean months. The Gaelic root ruadhán means little red one, which tied the name originally to the color of the tree's fruit and, just as likely, to the copper hair of the child who received it. Old Norse reynir runs a parallel course, and the name arrives in modern use with both Celtic and Norse thread woven through it.

At rank 445, Rowen leans slightly more masculine than its more common cousin Rowan, the added e lending a touch of the unfamiliar that appeals to parents wanting something in the same family but slightly more individual. It sits comfortably unisex without committing entirely to either direction, which gives it unusual flexibility in the contemporary landscape of names that do not want to be pinned down.

Two syllables — ROH-en — move with easy naturalness, neither demanding nor disappearing. It belongs among Miller and Camryn and Salem and Murphy, surnames-turned-given-names that share Rowen's quality of feeling rooted in something older than fashion. Rowen Ellis, Rowen James, Rowen Faye — it takes almost any middle without complaint. The child named Rowen tends to be the one who already knows which plants are edible, who notices the weather changing before the adults do, who has been quietly paying attention since the beginning.