Arwen was invented by J. R. R. Tolkien for the elven princess in The Lord of the Rings; in his Sindarin language it means "noble maiden", from ar, noble, and wen, maiden. The name spread from the books to real-life use after the film trilogy of 2001 to 2003. In the United States Arwen has never entered the top 1000 but has crept upward, from number 1797 in 2015 to a best rank of number 1278 in 2023, and stands at number 1384 in 2025.