The baby name Arden blends the natural world, literary status, and a tailored, surname style.
Thanks to Christina for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
THE FOREST OF ARDEN
If this name sounds familiar, it might be thanks to William Shakespeare.
The author set his pastoral comedy As You Like It in a forest by the name.
Fair Rosalind ventures into the woods disguised as a youth. Hijinks ensue, but all ends happily.
The Bard borrowed his fantastic forest from the real world. Two actual places answer to the name.
Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, was born in the first, a town in Warwickshire. Like many, she took her surname from her hometown. Mary married John Shakespeare, and they made their family’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The English forest was already in decline during the author’s youth. He was also influenced by the Ardennes, a forest stretching from Belgium and Luxembourg to France and Germany. An earlier writer, Thomas Lodge, set a story there. Lodge named his heroine Rosalynde. Shakespeare clearly borrowed liberally.
THE MEANING OF THE NAME ARDEN
Both forests take their names from the Celtic word ardu – high land.
The latter was known as Arduenna Silva by the Romans.
So while the meaning of Arden might be described as famous forest, it’s clear that the origin of the name Arden is that descriptive Celtic term.
Some sites list a second meaning: eagle valley. This tracks with other known names. Ari, for example, means eagle in Old Norse. And some surnames, like Ogden, derive the -den from an older word for valley, the Old English denu.
Either way, Arden is a place name linked to real and imaginary forests, tied to the natural world.
LITERARY SURNAME CHOICE
As a surname, Arden continues to appear in writing, including:
- The 1592 play Arden of Feversham, about couple named Thomas and Alice Arden. It was based on real life events, and the names were not changed. It was first performed in 1592, many years before As You Like It.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson penned “Enoch Arden” in 1864. Shipwrecked sailor Enoch struggles to return home, only to find his beloved wife has remarried. (Shades of a classic story line, including Tom Hanks’ tale in Castaway.)
ARDENT
It helps, too, that Arden looks like ardent – an unrelated word meaning enthusiastic or passionate.
Ardent comes from an Old French word, ardant, that meant burning – or zealous. It’s ultimate from a Latin word used to describe anything burning, be it an actual fire or something more figurative.
If fiery names like Blaze and Ember can appeal for our children, then Arden’s similarity to the word ardent is a plus, too. It’s almost a modern virtue name, a sibling for Haven or True.
Arden
stylish rarity
Shakespeare borrowed the name of his magical forest from the map – and an earlier work. With ties to nature and literature, this surname has potential.
Popularity
unranked; given to 239 girls and 155 boys in 2022ity goes here
Trend
holding steady
Origin
Place name from a Celtic root meaning “high land.”
HOW POPULAR IS ARDEN?
Like many surnames, Arden has always been used in small numbers. It’s more common as a boy’s name initially, just like many family surnames.
It helps that Arden fits with names like Arthur, Arlo, and Archer, too. As of 2022, 155 boys received the name.
But today, it’s more popular as a girl’s name. 239 girls received the name in 2022, putting it just outside of the US Top 1000.
While it’s always hard to say exactly what makes an apparently unisex name trend in favor of boys or girls, it’s worth noting that the twentieth century gave us reason to hear this name a feminine.
- Our Miss Brooks started out on radio and crossed to television and eventually the big screen, running for nearly a decade and becoming a major hit. ActressEve Arden played Miss Brooks, a high school English teacher. She passed away in 1990 after a six decades-long career, definitely enough to leave a lasting impression.
- Florence Graham founded her beauty empire, Elizabeth Arden, in 1910. It remains a major cosmetics and fragrance company today. Graham chose her surname from the Tennyson poem.
It’s been enough to help put Arden into the girls’ Top 1000 in the US as recently as 2019, even though it regularly appeared in the most popular baby boy names from the 1880s through the 1950s.
STYLISH RARITY
All of this makes the baby name Arden a stylish rarity, and a good choice for parents seeking name that stands out and fits in.
The name’s image mixes so many things: the great forest of Shakespeare’s imagination, as well as the real forests and places across the English-speaking world; the tailored surname; and the burning, sound-alike ardent.
When it comes to baby naming now, never count out an A-name, from Ava to Amelia, our favorite first initial for a daughter by a lot. (And second only to the letter J for a son.)
It’s a subsitute for Harper or Aria, Parker or Arlo.
What do you think of the baby name Arden?
This post was published on August 3, 2011. It was revised and re-posted on June 27, 2016 and again on May 9, 2024.
Arden really isn’t my style, it sounds too much like the word ardent for me. It also sounds too much like the word garden but with a missing G. I would classify this as unisex – meaning if I heard it was someone’s name I would wait to learn their gender before making assumptions 😉
Like Sara, I keep trying to say garden instead, which would pose a problem for me if I liked the name enough to consider it. As it stands, Arden isn’t for me, it’s not a name I could see myself considering, although it’d make an unusual way to get a name I love from as a nickname – Harry.
That’s part of the reason I like this name! It makes me think of garden because it sounds so similar. This is also why it sounds feminine to me. 🙂
This is my son’s middle name. I found it looking through a baby book trying to find an alternative to Abram, which my husband wouldn’t agree to. I liked that it ranked on the SSA in the past. It sounded like an old man name to me. At the time I didn’t want any family names and liked a blank slate as far as names. Since then I’ve grown more sentimental and wish he’d have something with meaning in there. It could have been worse though since we were fairly young parents, so for that I’m thankful. 😀
I’m not sure why but this name just sounds like a girls name to me. It isn’t one of the those names that screams masculinity to me though it does have a unisex feel to it like Harley or Hayden.
I’d use Arden on a boy, myself. Feels just a little soft, which appeals to me. Doesn’t strike me as feminine much, really. I like the forest link, which again makes me think boy, not girl. As a surname, it also fits the boy thing. Can’t find anything in Arden that feels feminine, actually. Lovely. 😀
When you cross over the border into Warwickshire the signs all say “Shakespeare’s county” on them. He may have been influenced by his mother’s surname, but the forest itself is close to where Shakespeare lived.
I quite like Arden for both boys and girls — although I slightly prefer the Welsh Arthen on a boy I think. Leofric is one of my guilty pleasures. I have always loved it. Maybe I’m just swayed by patriotism though as his wife, Lady Godiva, is the symbolic patron of Coventry where I live.
I love the name Arden! For a girl.
The name makes me think of a garden and also the word Ardent. 🙂 It sounds feminine and beautiful to me. Unfortunately, my husband thinks it sounds like a boy’s name, so it’s out of the running for us to actually use.
There’s also Canadian singer Jann Arden, she comes to mind first for me. 🙂
Love Jann Arden!
I prefer Arden for a boy, and Ardenne/s [silent ‘s’] for a girl.
My Sweet Audrina by V. C. Andrews featured a boy named Arden. That’s who I think of when I hear the name, though I did wear Red Door by Elizabeth Arden throughout high school.
It seems like a boy name to me, but probably not one I’d use. It’s just a touch on the nerdy-sounding side of things to my ear.
There was a Celtic Goddess Arduinna associated with the Belgian Ardennes. She may or may not have been venerated in the region of the Forest of Arden. Simply no evidence either way. It is certainly something else to add to the pie if choosing Arden for a girl.
In my opinion, it still works for boys, and plenty of reasons to choose it for a boy. But if it does climb the charts, I reckon it will be as a girl’s name.
I’d never really heard the name Arden before we used it for our daughter, Mila Arden. Some name websites and books mention “eagle valley” as a meaning, have you heard anything about this?
The Old Norse element arn means eagle; -den refers to a valley in English surnames like Holden, Denton, etc. So it isn’t unreasonable to assume that Arden might have developed the same way. And yet, the other explanation seems more plausible. The places called Arden/Ardenne/Ardennes have been around for ages, as have the mountains, and the families seem to come from those locations …
So, maybe. But it seems more like a folk etymology, like Solange meaning sun angel … it doesn’t trace historically, but it is easy to imagine that it might seem like it should.