Carden
A place name referring to an English town or settlement.
Name Census estimates that about 446 living Americans carry the first name Carden. It is a predominantly male name (91.8% of registrations). The average person named Carden today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carden births was 2008 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carden. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
446
~ 1 in 768,507 Americans
Peak year
2008
37 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,884
Tracked since 1998
Census
Carden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 458 people with the first name Carden, which placed it at #21,926 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,926
National first-name rank
People counted
458
458 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carden is White at 70.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Carden described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Carden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.5% · 323
- Black or African American10.3% · 47
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.0% · 46
- Two or more races5.5% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Carden
Carden leans heavily male at 91.8% of total registrations, but 37 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Carden as a male name
- Ranked #6,884 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (28 births)
Carden as a female name
- Ranked #15,631 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2008 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carden leans strongly male. 384 people counted with this name were male (81.2%), compared with 89 female bearers (18.8%).
Popularity
Carden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carden from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 228 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Carden remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carden by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Carden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cardens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Carden
The name Carden is believed to have its origins in the English language, derived from the Old English word "caerden," which means "enclosed garden" or "garden enclosure." This suggests that the name may have been initially used as a surname or a place name referring to someone who lived near or owned a walled garden or enclosed area for cultivating plants.
The name Carden can be traced back to the Middle Ages in England, where it was used as a surname in various regions of the country. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a landowner named Rodbert de Carden in Cambridgeshire.
During the medieval period, the name Carden was also associated with various noble families and landowners in different parts of England. For example, the Carden family was prominent in Cheshire, and their ancestral seat was Carden Hall, which dates back to the 13th century.
One notable historical figure who bore the name Carden was Sir Robert Carden (c. 1550-1624), an English soldier and courtier during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He served as a captain in the English army and was knighted for his services in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War against Spain.
Another individual with the name Carden was John Carden (1637-1686), an English clergyman and academic who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1677 to 1679.
In the 18th century, Carden gained prominence as a first name, particularly among the upper classes in England. One example is John Carden (1753-1825), a British naval officer who served during the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He rose to the rank of Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy.
Another notable figure was Sir John Carden (1771-1858), a British army officer who served in the Peninsular War against Napoleon's forces in Spain and Portugal. He was knighted for his military service and later became a Member of Parliament.
While the name Carden has its roots in England, it has also been used in other English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and Canada, where it may have been adopted by families with English ancestral origins.
People
Carden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carden as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Carden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 446 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carden going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 768,507 US residents.
Is Carden a common name?
We classify Carden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 450 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carden most popular?
The single biggest year for Carden was 2008, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carden is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 458 people with the name Carden, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,926 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Carden in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Carden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carden leans strongly male. 384 people counted with this name were male (81.2%), compared with 89 female bearers (18.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Carden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carden is White at 70.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Carden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.5% (323 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Carden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carden a male name?
Yes, 91.8% of people registered as Carden in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Carden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carden in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Carden can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Carden?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Carden on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.