boy's name
Ayden
AY-den
- Origin Irish
- Gender Boy
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 117,868
the United States
#257
2025 births
Ayden is a boy's name, a respelling of the Irish Aidan meaning "little fire." It ranks twenty-fourth in France and 257th in the United States, where it is falling after a 2012 peak, so the two markets are moving in opposite directions.
- Ayden is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in 2012, when 6,349 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 2,429 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1990.
Ayden over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1990s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1990s | 529 |
| 2000s | 27,598 |
| 2010s | 50,498 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 13,005 |
What Ayden means
Ayden means little fire, or fiery one. It carries the meaning of Aidan, from the Irish aodh, fire, with a diminutive ending, and the respelling changes the look of the name without changing its sense.
Where Ayden comes from
Ayden is one of several modern respellings of Aidan, which comes from the Old Irish Aedan, a diminutive of Aed, the name of a Celtic fire god and an ordinary word for fire. Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, a seventh-century Irish monk, carried the name into English use. The Ayden, Aiden, Aden and Adan spellings proliferated in the United States from the late 1990s and became the defining example of a rhyming-name fashion that also produced Jayden, Kayden and Brayden. Its French popularity is more recent and belongs to a broader taste for Anglo-American names, which is why it sits in the French top twenty while falling in its country of adoption.
Ayden in use
Ayden ranks twenty-fourth in France with about 1,725 births in 2025 and 257th in the United States, where our records show a peak in 2012 and a clear decline since. That divergence is the interesting part: a name can be simultaneously fashionable in one market and receding in another, and Ayden is one of the sharpest examples we hold. England and Wales sits between the two, recording it at 352.
How popular is Ayden?
In 2025, Ayden was given to 1,365 babies in the United States, ranking #257 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Ayden is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Ayden is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Aÿden | Aÿden is a variant spelling of Ayden, recorded in France. | 50 |
| Aydën | Aydën is a rare spelling of Ayden, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 15 times, mostly in France. | 15 |
| Aydèn | Aydèn is a rare spelling of Ayden, written with a grave accent and recorded about 5 times, mostly in France. | 5 |
Names that peaked alongside Ayden
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Ayden also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Ayden over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Ayden in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Ayden
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Ayden — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Ayden
What does the name Ayden mean?
Ayden means "little fire," from the Irish aodh, fire, with a diminutive ending.
Is Ayden the same as Aiden?
Yes, both respell the Irish Aidan. The spellings are counted separately by every register we use.
Is Ayden still popular?
It ranks twenty-fourth in France but is falling in the United States, where it peaked in 2012.
Where does Aidan come from?
The Old Irish Aedan, from Aed, a fire god and the ordinary word for fire.
Is Ayden a girl's or a boy's name?
Ayden is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
Is Ayden a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Ayden currently ranks #24 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.