Vayden
A masculine name of English origin meaning "from the valley town".
Name Census estimates that about 190 living Americans carry the first name Vayden. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Vayden today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vayden births was 2010 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vayden. 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
190
~ 1 in 1,803,970 Americans
Peak year
2010
18 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,065
Tracked since 2004
Census
Vayden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 180 people with the first name Vayden, which placed it at #41,022 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
#41,022
National first-name rank
People counted
180
180 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vayden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vayden is White at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.6%) and Black (10.6%). 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 Vayden 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 Vayden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.7% · 111
- Hispanic or Latino15.6% · 28
- Black or African American10.6% · 19
- Two or more races6.7% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1
Popularity
Vayden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vayden from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 106 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Vayden remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vayden 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 Vayden 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 Vayden
The given name Vayden is a relatively modern invention, likely derived from the Old English name Vaden or Vayden. Its origins can be traced back to the 9th century AD, when it was used as a surname or place name in parts of what is now southern England.
Vayden is thought to have evolved from the Old English words "waed" meaning "ford" or "crossing" and "denu" meaning "valley." This suggests the name may have referred to someone living near a river valley or ford. Early spellings included Wæddene, Wayddene, and Vaidene.
There are no definitive records of the name Vayden appearing in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records prior to the 11th century. The earliest known person with this first name was Vayden of Wessex, a minor nobleman who lived in the late 11th century in what is now Somerset, England.
In the 12th century, a Benedictine monk named Vayden served as a scribe and chronicler at the Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. His detailed accounts of life in the abbey provide valuable historical insights into the period.
During the 13th century, a knight named Sir Vayden de Montfort fought alongside Simon de Montfort in the Second Barons' War against King Henry III of England. He was killed in the Battle of Evesham in 1265.
In the 15th century, a renowned architect and stonemason named Vayden Rawlins oversaw the construction of several churches and cathedrals in southern England, including the iconic Winchester Cathedral.
Another notable figure was Vayden Trossett, a 16th-century English explorer and navigator who accompanied Sir Francis Drake on his circumnavigation of the globe from 1577 to 1580. Trossett's detailed logbooks and maps provided invaluable information about the voyage.
While the name Vayden fell out of widespread use for several centuries, it has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent decades, likely influenced by its unique sound and potential meanings related to nature and geography.
People
Vayden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vayden 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
Vayden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vayden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 190 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vayden 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 1,803,970 US residents.
Is Vayden a common name?
We classify Vayden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 192 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vayden most popular?
The single biggest year for Vayden was 2010, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vayden is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vayden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 180 people with the name Vayden, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,022 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 Vayden 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 Vayden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vayden leans strongly male. 159 people counted with this name were male (85.9%), compared with 26 female bearers (14.1%). 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 Vayden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vayden is White at 61.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.6%) and Black (10.6%). 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 Vayden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vayden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.7% (111 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 Vayden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vayden a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vayden 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 Vayden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vayden 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 Vayden 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 are called Vayden?
You can see how many Americans are named Vayden on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.