Alden
An English surname that likely began as a place name, but may also reflect old Anglo-Saxon personal-name forms.
The #5,985 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 53,714 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Alden is usually treated as an English surname formed from a place-name, with some early scholars also allowing a personal-name source. One common explanation connects it with places containing Old English alder, the tree name, especially where the first element appears in local names. Another possibility raised in older scholarship is that it developed from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Aldred or from Aldwin, with the final -en representing later surname development.
History
The name appears in English records in several forms, and older surname dictionaries note both local and baptismal explanations for it. In some cases it may have arisen from a residence near an alder-rich place; in others it may descend from an Old English given name that later became hereditary as a surname. The surname also spread into North America through English migration.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname writers explicitly debated whether Alden was local or patronymic, which is why it often appears beside forms like Aldin and Aldine in historical indexes.
From the historical record
“name in the H.E. ALDEN. Perhaps Ilalden, co Kent. CQI'ALDER. Enters into the composition of many local names, and consequently of surnames. It indicates places favour- able for the growth of the tree in some instances, but much oftener it is no doubt a corruption of the A-Sax. per- sonal name Aldred, as m…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom