Alden
Feminine · “old friend”
Alden is given to both — 952 girls and 18,221 boys since 1880. See Alden as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Alden means old friend, and it has an unusually clean American pedigree: John Alden came over on the Mayflower in 1620, married Priscilla Mullins, and became one of the most-descended-from figures in New England. The surname followed. Its appearance on American girls is recent, peaking in 2004.
How old is the name Alden?
Alden first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Alden alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 900 people named Alden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alden most popular?
Alden peaked in 2004, reaching #3566 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 2,550 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ealdwine to Alden
The story of Alden
Ealdwine was an ordinary Anglo-Saxon name and survived the Norman Conquest better than most, chiefly as a surname. John Alden, a cooper hired at Southampton, sailed on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact; Longfellow's poem The Courtship of Miles Standish made him and Priscilla into American folklore in 1858. The surname is common in New England and its use as a given name follows the ordinary American pattern. Its girls' use is very recent and belongs to the general -en and -den fashion that also carried Camden, Emerson and Rowan across.
Meaning
old friend
Old English Ealdwine joins eald, 'old', to wine, 'friend' — the same second element as in Edwin, Godwin and Baldwin, and a very common one in Anglo-Saxon naming. The word wine, 'friend', is unrelated to the drink and survives now only inside these fossilized names. Ealdwine gave the medieval English given name Aldwin and then the surname Alden. The derivation is settled.
How the name formed
- Ealdwine
- Aldwin
- Alden
Related forms: Aldwin · Aldwin
Pronouncing Alden
AWL-dun
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ending reduced to a schwa. There is no competing saying, and the spelling gives English readers no difficulty.
Nicknames for Alden
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
- 1924
- Most girls named
- 200441 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3566reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −24.0%19 in 2025, from 25
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.
Alden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aldwin in English — related form
- Aldwin in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia.
Aldens among us
people named Alden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Alden
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 Sharissa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Alden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sharissa climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sharissa's path sketches the road Alden is walking now.
Alden 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
Alden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent and warm, and expressible in two words.
- It has a documented Anglo-Saxon origin and a documented Mayflower bearer.
- The pronunciation is obvious on sight.
- It is far more common on boys, so forms will often assume male.
- It is easily heard as Alton, Aldon or Holden.
- The -en ending places it in a very crowded modern field.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Alden
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aldens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Alden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alden in 2025?
- Alden ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alden?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Alden — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alden with classmates?
- Alden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Jai#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Alden and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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