Auden
Feminine · “old friend”
Auden is given to both — 1,001 girls and 1,887 boys since 1880. See Auden as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Auden is an old friend in Old English — eald and wine — and W. H. Auden's surname made it a given name.
How old is the name Auden?
Auden first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Auden is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Auden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Auden most popular?
Auden peaked in 2023, reaching #2020 nationally. Today it ranks #2583, 563 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From eald wine to Auden
The story of Auden
W. H. Auden wrote some of the most quoted English poetry of the twentieth century and his surname became a given name in the 2000s, chiefly for girls in America. The likeliest root joins 'old' to 'friend' — a compound Anglo-Saxon naming used often. It is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
old friend
Generally from the Old English Ealdwine — eald, 'old', and wine, 'friend' — through Aldwin and Auden. A Scandinavian route from Auðun, 'wealth-friend', is also proposed. Both are Germanic and both plausible. Neither is fully settled.
How the name formed
- eald wine
- Ealdwine
- Auden
Related forms: Alden · Auðun
Pronouncing Auden
AW-den
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Auden
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
- 2000
- Most girls named
- 202397 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2020reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −5.6%67 in 2025, from 71
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.
Auden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Alden in English — related form
- Auðun in Norse — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Michigan, California.
Audens among us
people named Auden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 23,989 born in 2025 was named Auden
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 Prescilla test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Auden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Prescilla climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Prescilla's path sketches the road Auden is walking now.
Auden 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
Where Auden is headed
Auden should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Auden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Auden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The old-friend meaning is warm and transparent where it holds.
- W. H. Auden is a first-rate bearer.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The origin is split between English and Norse routes.
- It reads as a surname and is used for both sexes.
- It is very new as a given name.
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What they receive
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Auden
Feminine · #2583 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Audens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Auden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Auden in 2025?
- Auden ranks #2583 among US girl names in 2025, with 67 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Auden?
- About 1 in every 23,989 US girls born in 2025 was named Auden — 67 in all.
- Will my child share the name Auden with classmates?
- Auden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Auden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Azra#2583 · Jelani#2583 · Liba#2583 · Talya#2583 · Nature#2583 · Xylah#2583 · Island#2583 · Maleni#2583
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Auden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Auden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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