Payden
Feminine · “Pæga's farmstead”
Payden is given to both — 701 girls and 1,343 boys since 1880. See Payden as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Peyton is a farm in England. The Old English name behind it joins a personal name — Pæga, about whom nothing is known — to tun, a farmstead or enclosure, and several villages carry it. Payden takes that surname and gives it the ending that dominated American boys' naming after the millennium, which puts a Saxon farmer inside a modern rhyme scheme.
How old is the name Payden?
Payden first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Payden alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 700 people named Payden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Payden most popular?
Payden peaked in 2009, reaching #3000 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,208 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Pæga tun to Payden
The story of Payden
Peyton crossed from English surname to American first name and then, unusually, to both sexes — it is given to sons and daughters in real numbers, which very few surname-names manage. At the same moment the Aiden ending was detaching itself and attaching to any front element available. Payden sits exactly where those two things meet: it can be read as Peyton respelled or as Pay plus the ending, and the record shows it appearing in 1986 and rising with the rhyme rather than with the surname.
Meaningscholars disagree
Pæga's farmstead
The Peyton place names in Essex and Suffolk are read as the farm of a man called Pæga, joined to the Old English tun. That is documented for the villages. Whether this spelling descends from the surname or was built from the Pay- sound and the -den ending that Aiden made available cannot be told, and both were happening at once.
How the name formed
- Pæga tun
- Peyton
- Payden
Pronouncing Payden
PAY-den
Two syllables, stress on the first, the second reduced. Payton, Peyton and Payden are said identically in American English, which is why all three appear in the records.
Nicknames for Payden
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
- 1992
- Most girls named
- 200957 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3000reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%6 in 2025, from 9
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.
Paydens among us
people named Payden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Payden
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 Soraida test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Payden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Soraida climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Soraida's path sketches the road Payden is walking now.
Payden 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
Payden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Payden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is entirely readable on sight with no ambiguity about the sound.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record shows it doing so.
- The English place name behind it is documented, if the surname reading is taken.
- Peyton, Payton and Paden are all commoner and will be written instead.
- The ending dates a child's birth to within a few years for anyone who knows the rhyme.
- It leans to boys without settling there, so forms and rosters will guess.
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What they receive
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Payden
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Paydens 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 Payden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Payden in 2025?
- Payden ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Payden?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Payden — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Payden with classmates?
- Payden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Payden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Payden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Payden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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