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It has a lovely sound. Arden was Shakespeare's mother's maiden name and it's associated with the Forest of Arden.

Well, I associate it with Elizabeth Arden make up and perfume, and for some reason it also reminds me of the name Avalon and the word arbor soundwise, so I always think of lush green forests and tall trees and images like that. But that's definitely just a personal association. My one true real life experience with the name Arden is my only negative association with the name. I took my sister to a book sale at her grade school one night and a mother was yelling for her child (a girl). It took me a few minutes to figure out what she was saying. She was saying it really quickly and intensely, and I could have sworn to God she was saying "Hard on". I always liked the name until I heard that. Now I still want to like it, but after that I just don't see it the same way. An alternative to Arden for a boy I like is Anden, which I know isn't in the database but I ran across it when researching names that meant "imagination", but then you may get the nickname Andy. And I have no idea if that's the correct meaning.

I kind of like it, on either gender (which is odd for me). I agree with Array that it reminds me of the word "ardent", though, but it also makes me think of Elizabeth Arden make-up, which may lend people to think it's a more feminine name (even though it's a surname).

Sounds like Ardent; while I'd like to think of it as passion, my mind always goes to lustful. :-/ Also, it's the name of a character in My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews, and while he's not the worst character in it by far, he's kind of a failbot. He basically stands there while the title character is gangraped and looks confused.

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I can't think of any associations I have with the name that are positive.

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Array

This message was edited 7/9/2008, 9:06 PM

I am quite enamored with the name Arden at the moment, so it's hard for me to see past my bias and find problems with it. The only possible teasing I can think of is "Arden the arse," but that wouldn't be a problem in the US.

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I don't really have associations with it, though I did read a story a long time ago that had a character named 'Arden' - I recall that he seemed kind of cool and I liked his name, but that's all I remember. I like that there aren't tons of people named 'Arden' running around, because it kind of gives the name a clean slate as far as associations go. But I would love to see a little Arden - a boy Arden like you mentioned, of course, as it definitely seems like a masculine name to me.