>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.