rowan

plural rowans · alternative archaic roan

1. Sorbus aucuparia, the European rowan.

   Among the pines grew rowans hung with scarlet berries, and bilberry bushes whose leaves would be fair game for white moth caterpillars in spring.

   2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2026

   Synonyms: mountain ash, quickbeam, wicken, wicky

2. Any of various small deciduous trees or shrubs of genus Sorbus, belonging to the rose family, with pinnate leaves, corymbs of white flowers, and usually with orange-red berries.
3. obsoletewych-elm, Ulmus glabra.

plural rowans

1. alternativeAlternative form of rowen (“aftermath”).

plural rowans

1. ScotlandcountabledateduncountableDated form of roving (“an elongate bundle of fiber”).

plural rowans

1. IrelandNorthern EnglandScotlandalternativearchaiccountableuncountableAlternative form of rown (“fish-eggs”).

1. A surname from Irish.
2. A male given name from Irish.
3. A unisex given name from English of modern usage, often associated with the rowan tree.
4. A locality in the Wagga Wagga council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.
5. One of 120 counties in Kentucky, United States. County seat: Morehead. Rowan County.

   He was a native of Elliott county, but he had lived for a few years in Rowan. In March, 1885, he was riding along the public road, about six miles from Morehead, when he was shot from ambush and killed.

   1916, Lewis Franklin Johnson, Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials, page 261

6. One of 100 counties in North Carolina, United States. County seat: Salisbury. Rowan County.

   [...] his family came to North Carolina in 1783, finally settling in Rowan, while others of the connection settled in Caldwell and Burke.

   1992, John Preston Arthur, A History of Watauga County, North Carolina, page 317