> John Cowan wrote:
> >Not me, though I might add him to my "Not This John Cowan" page
> >(
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/notme.html). But obviously named according
> >to the same pattern, Welsh rather than Irish variety. I bet the name
> >was rightly Owens = son of John, just like my own (Ma)cOwen. As for
> >the vowel variation, that's trivial -- my grandfather spelled it
> >"Coen" and almost surely said /kou@n/ when he came to this country.
> >The spelling changed shortly thereafter, and the pronunciation in my
> >father's time -- allegedly a mistake by his high school football coach
> >that stuck.
>
> What IS the pronunciation is your family name? It just occured to me that
> I've been thinking of it as ['kOvan] for years, which can't possibly be
> right. ['kaU@n]?