Moen
A surname with at least two likely roots: in Scandinavian use it is often locational, while in Irish contexts it can be a variant of names related to Mooney/Mahon.
The #4,367 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 37,939 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name is most securely tied to Scandinavian place-name usage, where Moen is a common surname from moen/moen-type terrain terms meaning a meadow, plain, or level tract of land. In Irish sources, however, Moen appears beside Moan, Moughan, Moon, and related forms, suggesting a separate Gaelic surname stream or anglicized variant rather than a single origin. Because the historical dictionaries give mixed hints and do not settle on one derivation for every bearer, the safest view is that Moen has multiple independent origins depending on family line.
History
The form is well established in Norway and Denmark as a habitational surname and later spread abroad through emigration. In the Irish material, 19th- and early-20th-century surname writers place Moen among a cluster of names with unstable spellings, which reflects the fluid anglicization of Gaelic surnames. In English-language records outside Scandinavia, it can therefore appear as a variant spelling attached to different families.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same spelling can point to very different family histories: a Scandinavian place-name surname in one case, and an Irish anglicized surname in another.
From the historical record
“Miriel. Mirville ; a loc. n. Mohant. Moen (?) ; a loc. n., Belg. Moion, Norm. Monchenesey, Mountheusey Monhout. Manehouville (?), loc. n. Montfichet. See Muschet, Mus-”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)