Hadden
A surname usually taken from a place name, especially Haddon/Hadden, meaning someone who came from that locality.
The #5,281 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 46,829 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is generally explained as a habitational name from places called Haddon or Hadden in England. The place-name is usually analyzed from Old English elements meaning either “heathen hill” or, more broadly, a hill or down associated with rough ground; older surname books often simply treat it as “of Haddon.” The different spellings Hadden, Haddon, and Haddan reflect medieval variation in how the place name was written and pronounced.
History
Medieval records show forms such as de Hadden and de Haddon, confirming that the name was used for people identified by origin from a place. In later centuries the surname spread beyond England and appears in records from Britain and, much later, the United States. Modern spellings have remained fairly stable, though Haddon is also common as a related surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname writers repeatedly linked Hadden and Haddon to the same cluster of English place names, so the spelling often depended on local record-keeping rather than a different family origin.
From the historical record
“Hadden hir [their] beestes and hir herbergp.ge [abode];— Chaucer, Cant. Tales, E 199-201. There are a tything called Throop in”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)