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I think they are both useable. I personally would use Eowyn before Arwen, but that's just because I like the sound of Eowyn better and I like the character in the book more.

Arwen because the pronunciation is more obvious. And yes I think so, but it depends on how obscure the the name is. Like Harry is common and not entirely associated with Harry Potter but Katniss is not usable in my opinion. Arwen is very similar to popular and trendy names right now so I think it's fine

Arwen looks plausibly English, and - ironically - Eowyn does not. So, Arwen would be better, but they've both got a lot of baggage.

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Some literary names are more usable than others: nobody finds Belinda, Celia, Vanessa etc particularly literary any more, but I think we'd all associate Harry and Hermione with JK Rowling rather than Shakespeare. Perhaps we tend not to actually read many authors earlier than Jane Austen, whose taste in names still counts as 'excellent and inconspicuous'.

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However, common sense should prevail. I know two children named after rather minor characters in a fantasy series - forget the author; someone will know - so the parents clearly loved the names rather than the characters. The boy is Arutha and the girl is Gwynath, and spelling issues haunt them both.

Arwen is slightly more usable, I think. Although I prefer Eowyn, Arwen is more straightforward.

I think Arwen because it looks easier to spell/pronounce and looks less fantasy.

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Some literary names are useable while others are not. I think out 100 percent depends on the name itself and varies even between book series. For example, in my opinion:
Arwen is usable; Boromir is not
Hermione is usable; Severus is not
Primrose is usable; Katniss is not
Juliet is usable; Benvolio is not

I think Eowyn is prettier, but Arwen is easier for spelling and pronunciation. I don't care for names that are only associated with literature. Like these are both LOTR names, and only connected to that recent work of literature. Old lit and old names used in lit are different. Does that make sense?

This message was edited 4/15/2014, 10:24 PM

Eowyn. Arwen reminds me of Erwin so I just don't like it in general. I think literary names are usable. Personally, I love Atticus so its just a matter of convincing my SO.

I think Arwen is more usable.

I've met an Eowyn so it seems fairly reasonable to me as a name.

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Arwen is much more straight forward as far as spelling/pronunciation go, but I think the both work.

I think they're both usable but I think Arwen would be "easier". Eowyn is actually quite popular in my area. There's always a few every year, either fn or mn.