Aden
Feminine
Aden is given to boys far more often — 21,854 boys against 663 girls since 1880. See Aden as a boy name
Aden is one of the oldest working harbors on earth. It sits in the flooded crater of an extinct volcano, halfway between the Mediterranean and India, and when the Suez Canal opened in 1869 it became one of the busiest coaling stations in the world almost overnight.
How old is the name Aden?
Aden first appears in US birth records in 1987 — 38 years ago. The typical Aden alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 700 people named Aden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aden most popular?
Aden peaked in 2004, reaching #3689 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 5,768 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aodh to Aden
The story of Aden
The harbor at Aden is a natural crater basin with deep water and shelter on all sides, and it has been a trading port for at least three thousand years, handling frankincense, spices and the Indian Ocean trade. The Romans knew it as Arabia Eudaemon. The British took it in 1839, and after 1869 it served the steamships passing through Suez in numbers that made it one of the great bunkering ports of the empire. It was a Crown colony until 1963 and independent from 1967. The city's position explains everything about it: the sailing routes between the Red Sea and India pass the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, and any ship on that route wanted a harbor. Its long decline since the 1960s is a matter of politics rather than geography, and the geography has not changed.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Aden in American records is most often a respelling of Aiden, from Irish Aodhan, a diminutive of Aodh, the name of a pre-Christian fire deity. It coincides exactly with Aden, the Yemeni port, whose own name is of uncertain origin and has been connected to a word for a settled place. The two are unrelated. The peak of the female use is 2004.
How the name formed
- Aodh
- Aodhan
- Aiden
- Aden
Related forms: Aiden · Aodhan
Pronouncing Aden
AY-den
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Yemeni port is said AH-den or AY-den in English and Adan in Arabic, so the two coincide only loosely.
Nicknames for Aden
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1987
- Most girls named
- 200742 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3689reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −23.1%10 in 2025, from 13
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aiden in English — related form
- Aodhan in Irish — related form
Adens among us
people named Aden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Aden
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Venecia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Venecia climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Venecia's path sketches the road Aden is walking now.
Aden sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Aden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables, easy to say and spell.
- The pronunciation is obvious from the spelling.
- It works as a short form of Aiden.
- It is read as a boy's name by most Americans.
- It is the name of a major Yemeni city.
- Aiden and Aidan are both far commoner.
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What they receive
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Aden
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Adens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Aden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aden in 2025?
- Aden ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aden?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Aden — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aden with classmates?
- Aden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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