Alden
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Meaning
from a surname from the Old English name Ealdwine: eald "old" + wine "friend"
The story
Alden reached use as a first name through an English surname. Behind that surname is Ealdwine, an Old English given name built from words meaning "old" and "friend". Ealdwine became rare after the Norman Conquest.
John Alden’s surname acquired a literary association in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Courtship of Miles Standish, published in 1858 and set in seventeenth-century New England. In the poem, John goes to ask Priscilla Mullins to marry his friend Standish, although John loves her himself. Priscilla recognizes what is happening and asks why he does not speak for himself. The scene belongs to a poem about historical people, rather than a record of their conversation.
The poem helped make the Alden house in Duxbury a nationally known place and contributed to its preservation. American birth records include boys named Alden in every decade from the 1890s onward. More boys received it in recent completed decades than through much of the twentieth century.
How popular is Alden around the world?
In the United States, 2,770 babies were named Alden between 2020 and 2025.
Alden is on the official records of the United States, Canada, England and Wales and Brazil.
United States
1 in 7,900
In the United States, 2,770 babies were named Alden between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Alden peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure. In US birth records Alden has stayed between 524 and 3,639 births in every decade since the 1950s: a name everyone knows and few children get.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Canada
1 in 9,900
In Canada, 37 boys named Alden were born in 2024, the 720th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
England and Wales
1 in 37,000
In England and Wales, 16 boys named Alden were born in 2025, ranked 1,613th among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Brazil
1 in 1M
At the 2022 census, 109 people in Brazil were named Alden, ranked 38,860th, with a median age of 38.
Among people named Alden living in Brazil at the 2022 census, roughly as many were born in the 1980s as in the 1990s, more than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Austria
last on record 2018
Alden is not on the 2025 record for Austria, which publishes every first name down to a single birth, so the name was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
Montevideo City
last on record 1955
Alden is not on the 2011 record for Montevideo, whose registry withholds nothing, so the spelling was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
South Australia
last on record 2014
Alden is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Alden
Most people given the name Alden in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Alden deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Alden truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Alden fits with your family’s names and surname.
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