Vanden
Of Old English origin, meaning "from the meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 153 living Americans carry the first name Vanden. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Vanden today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vanden births was 2009 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vanden. 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
153
~ 1 in 2,240,224 Americans
Peak year
2009
14 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2022 SSA rank
#12,216
Tracked since 1997
Popularity
Vanden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vanden 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 71 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vanden 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 Vanden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vanden
The name Vanden is believed to have its origins in the Dutch language and culture. It is thought to be a combination of the words "van" meaning "from" and "den" meaning "the", indicating that the name may have been used to identify someone's place of origin or residence.
In the Netherlands and other regions where Dutch was spoken, surnames often incorporated place names or descriptors to distinguish individuals. The name Vanden may have been used as a surname initially, before being adopted as a given name over time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vanden can be found in the Rijksarchief, the national archives of the Netherlands, where records from the 16th century mention individuals with the surname Vanden.
While the name does not appear to have any direct historical references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is worth noting that the Dutch language itself has roots in the Germanic languages spoken in the region during the Middle Ages.
In terms of notable individuals with the name Vanden, one of the earliest examples is Vanden Bosch, a Dutch painter who lived in the 17th century and was known for his landscape paintings. Another notable figure was Vanden Bogaert, a Dutch explorer who traveled to present-day Australia in the early 1600s and documented his observations of the land and its indigenous people.
In the realm of literature, Vanden Branden was a 16th-century Dutch poet and playwright whose works were influential during the Dutch Renaissance.
Moving into more recent history, Vanden Plas was a Belgian architect and designer who made significant contributions to the Art Nouveau movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Finally, Vanden Eeckhoudt was a Belgian economist and mathematician who lived from 1946 to 2014 and made significant contributions to the fields of risk and decision theory.
While these are just a few examples, the name Vanden has a rich history and has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, reflecting the diverse cultural and linguistic heritage of the Netherlands and surrounding regions.
People
Vanden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vanden as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vanden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vanden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 153 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vanden 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 2,240,224 US residents.
Is Vanden a common name?
We classify Vanden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 154 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vanden most popular?
The single biggest year for Vanden was 2009, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vanden is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Vanden a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vanden 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.
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.