Family name origins & meanings
- English and Scottish : from the plural of Middle English oven ‘oven’, ‘furnace’ (for lime, iron, charcoal, etc.), hence a topographic name or occupational name for someone who lived near or worked at an oven or furnace. According to MacLysaght this surname is found also in County Fermanagh in Ireland.
- North German : patronymic from the Frisian personal name Ove.