Ewan
Ewan is a Scottish name with multiple sources. It is usually an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Eòghann "noble born" and therefore derived ultimately from Latin Eugenius. A Pictish name, Uuen meaning " warrior", or "born of the mountain", may instead be the source.
If the source is Latin Eugenius, it would make Ewan a cognate of Welsh, Cornish and Breton names including Owain and Ouen. However, these may be older names derived from Britonnic language words referring to yew trees or ovines.
Another possible more likely source is Euan, a Gaelic form of Latin Johannes/Ioannes. As such it would be a cognate of Eoin, Ian and John.
Ewen is most common as a male given name in Scotland and Canada. It is also the source of surnames, mostly connected to Clan MacEwen and including McEwan, Ewan and Ewen. It is after these surnames that McEwan’s Beer and MacEwan University are named.
In several apocryphal and Gnostic texts, including the Book of Jubilees, the name Ewan/Awan appears as
a daughter of Adam and Eve.
Sometimes described as the sister and wife of Cain under ancient sibling-pairing narratives common in early human genealogies.
People with the given name
In the arts and media
- Ewan Christian, British architect
- Ewan MacColl, British folk singer-songwriter
- Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor
- Ewan Mitchell, English actor
- Ewan Stewart, Scottish actor
In sports
- Ewan MacDonald, Scottish curler
- Ewan McGrady, Australian rugby league footballer
- Ewan Thompson, Australian footballer
In other fields
- Ewan Birney, British bioinformatician
- Ewan Anderson, expert on geopolitics, economic and social geography
Characters
- Ewan, a character from the TV series Merlin Season 1 Episode 2
- Ewan O'Hara, Juliet O'Hara's brother on the TV series Psych
- Ewan, a guard in the book The Wizard's Child
- Ewan Doherty, Head of English in Teachers, a UK Channel 4 show
- Ewan the Dream Sheep, a popular baby sleeping toy
- Ewan Cameron, a minor character in Dragonfly in Amber, second book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon