Arden offers a compromise between nature names and literary ones, with a tailored, modern style.
Thanks to Christina for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
Arden: Forest of
William Shakespeare 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’s borrowed his fantastic forest from the real world. Two actual places answer to the name.
William’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.
Shakespeare’s forest was already in decline during his 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.
Arden: High Land
Both forests take their names from the Celtic ardu – high land. The latter was known as Arduenna Silva by the Romans. A draft horse is also named for the region.
All of this makes it a subtle nature name, a sister for Laurel, a substitute for Rowan.
Arden: Even More Literary
Besides Shakespeare’s forest and the original in Lodge’s work, two additional works of fiction claim this name.
In the 1592 play Arden of Feversham, it’s a surname for a couple named Thomas and Alice. The story is more of a proto-Law and Order than a regular drama. The case 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 Tom Hanks’ tale in Castaway.)
Arden: By the Numbers
The name has been used in small numbers for both genders for generations. Like many surnames, it started out more common for boys.
And why not? On sound, the name fits with Arthur and Aiden, Archer and Adrian. 92 boys received the name in 2015.
Pop culture pushes this one to the girls’ side.
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. Actress Eve Arden played Miss Brooks, a high school English teacher.
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.
All of this pushes Arden towards Team Pink, and it’s no surprise that 300 girls received the name, putting it in the Top 1000 once more.
Arden: Ardent
In Latin, ardere means “to burn.” Our word ardent – passionate, fiery – comes from the Latin. They’re not related, but on sound alone, Arden could be taken as a modern virtue name, a sibling for Haven or True.
Arden: Rarity on the Rise
Parents love tailored names for girls, like Harper and Evelyn. Factor in ties to literature and the natural world, and this name succeeds for many reasons.
Another reason this one might rise? A names dominate baby naming in 2016, from Ava to Amelia.
If you’re looking for a rare name that feels modern, but with history to spare, add this name to your shortlist.
Do you think this name could become the next Harper?
This post was published on August 3, 2011. It was substantially revised and re-posted on June 27, 2016.
Huh. My grandpa, Walter, had a brother named Arden (who died as a child). Growing up , I always thought it was the weirdest name, and not very masculine. For some reason I thought my great-grandma made it up, but now I know it’s a real name.
Arden’s real first name was Samuel, because they didn’t want the initials of Arden Samuel S-lastname. I could see myself using it as a middle name, but not my style for 1st name.
I have a relative who named her daughter Ardyn (ugh) so I’m not a big fan already. My grandmother named Nedra (she hates her name) told me that every time she meets an Arden, she tells him that they have the same name since Nedra is Arden backward. I’m sure she gets some funny looks but it’s nice to have another name nerd in the family!
There’s an apartment complex near where I live called Arden Woods, so I’m a little turned off of that association. But I ran across the sort-of smoosh Ardith in my name searches, which I love! I think its history is more from the “ardent” root word, but it carries the Arden connotation without being an apartment name, and sounds like another favorite, Edith.
Lovely name. If I were to use it, it would go to the boys.
I have considered using Arden as my stage surname (my first name is Angela) because of my love of Shakespeare… but then I saw the movie “Die, Mommy, Die!”, in which one of the main characters is named Angela Arden, and it is not a flattering comparison. So now I might steer clear.
I quite like Arden, and to me it feels feminine. That might be because it reminds me of the name of a girl in a book I once read. Her name was Ardith, and I wonder now whether the author made it up or not.
Some people say Ardith is a variant of the Hebrew name also spelled Ardeth or Ardath; it’s a place name in the Bible (in one of the books of Esdras I think, in the Apocrypha) meaning “blooming fields, flowering meadows”. I’ve also seen it listed as a Swedish name meaning “spiritual prosperity”. There seem to lots of women with this name, and not sure which one their names have been taken from. A lot of them do seem to have Scandinavian surnames though.
I don’t have time to look up references/sources right now [super busy!], but I know for sure that if Ardith/Ardath/Ardeth have Hebrew origins, the meaning has nothing to do with
I got scammed by those baby name sites that just give a description of whatever is called X; in this case, Ardath (the place) is a meadow filled with flowers. It’s like those sites that say, Artemis means “goddess of the moon”. Grrr.
The fact there’s no proper meaning given might mean that nobody knows what the meaning is. Thanks for setting the record straight!
Thank you for featuring Arden today. It’s a name I’ve started liking recently.
My dad has a lifelong friend named Ardell and as a result the Ard- syllable feels masculine to me. On the other hand, I know an Arden Jane and her double-barreled name really softens the heaviness of Ard-. I’d put Arden in the same category as Rowan, Morgan and Linden. I prefer them on boys, but I think they’re perfectly suitable choices for girls.
I like this name a lot, although for various reasons couldn’t use it except as a middle name.
To me, it sounds masculine, because I connect it with the Irish name Ardal, which comes from the same Celtic root. (Mind you, someone else might see Arden as a feminine form of Ardal).
Another literary namesake is “The House of Arden” by Edith Nesbit – a time-travelling children’s fantasy novel in which the Arden children, Edred and Elfrida, seek to find their family’s lost fortune.
kind of lovely.