Éowyn

To the people who are writing that this isn't an invented name: you're wrong, it was actually invented by Tolkien. Yes, he based it on two elements of the old English language but he still invented it, it didn't exist before (similar names existed in Wales, but not the exact same one. -wyn is not a feminine suffix in Welsh, it is masculine. -wen would be feminine, the name Éowyn is NOT Welsh).

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I really like it and it feels classic to me, though. But writing that it wasn't invented is false.

Personally, I've always thought that Eowyn meant 'horse lover,' or 'friend of horses.'

Eowyn is from Old English, alright, but it means "horse joy." The Old English element Eoh means "horse," and it's used in the names of several members of Rohan's ruling families and nobility (ie Theodred, Theoden, Eomer, Eomund, Eowyn, Eothain, etc).

Atarah Derek is correct in the first part, but Théoden and Théodred do not incorporate "éoh", which means "warhorse". They include "Théod", which means "people", both in Old English.

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Old English pronunciation: EI-o-wün.

To Arwen Undomiel, "Eowyn" does not mean "White horse". I think that you're confusing the Welsh "gwyn", which means white, with "wyn", which is derived from "wine", an Old English word for friend. I'm unsure about the "eo" root, but I'd say that it's part of Tolkien's created languages.

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As for the people who don't like Eowyn, I won't say that she's my favorite, but I don't dislike her. She's a woman being raised in a patriarchal society where women are expected to be domestic; that's part of the reason why she's insisted that she fight (he complaints of not being allowed to do so don't bother me). I know little of her early life, but I would guess that life has been cruel to her and to her brother, and especially when the War of the Ring kicks up and Orcs start overrunning their homeland; she's a woman determined to stand for her people and the way of her people has a strong patriarchal tone. I admire her determination and courage. And the fact that she plays a more active role than Arwen, I like it. And flirting with Aragorn, Tolkien intended at first for him to marry Eowyn, but Tolkien, of course, changed the pairing. Besides, I think that she truly does like him and looks up to him.

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But, you can't please everybody.

Éowyn must mean "white horse". "Eo" is Anglo-Saxon for horse, and "wyn" is Anglo-Saxon for white.

It literally means 'horse joy' not 'horse lover'.

It actually means 'Horse Joy'.

In "The Lord of the Rings", the "outer" or Mannish names of the Dwarves have been given Northern forms, but the letter values are those Tolien described. So also in the case of the personal and place-names of Rohan (where they have not been modernized) except that here EA and EO are diphthongs, which may be represented in the English BEAR, and the EO of THEOBALD; Y is the modified U. The modernized forms are easily recognized and are intended to be pronounecd as in English. They are mostly place-names: as Dunharrow (for DUNHARG), except Shadowfax and Wormtongue. -- "The Return of the King", Appendix E, Stress.