Aidan
- Pronunciation
- [Ai-dan]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Irish/Gaelic Name Meaning "Fire" Or "Little Fire." Variants Include Adan, Adeen, Aden, Aideen, Aiden.
- Origin
- Gaelic
About the Name Aidan
Aidan is an Irish and Gaelic name traditionally read as "fire" or "little fire," from the Gaelic root aodh. It carries a warm, spirited character and connects to a deep well of Irish tradition, where fire names suggest energy and brightness. The name appears in a family of related forms, with the variant Eden recorded here, and it has long crossed easily between Irish heritage use and the wider English-speaking world.
One notable bearer is Aidan Quinn, born March 8, 1959, an Irish-American actor whose four-decade career has produced a body of work characterized by quietly serious dramatic leads in independent film and prestige television — a fitting ambassador for the name's blend of Irish roots and contemporary appeal.
This entry tracks Aidan as a girls' name, and it does not appear in the US Social Security top-1000 records gathered here, meaning that in feminine use it has stayed outside that annual list — a marker of rarity rather than disuse. For families, that scarcity is part of the draw: a name with genuine Gaelic depth and a fiery, evocative meaning, used here in an uncommon feminine form that feels both rooted and distinctive. The contrast between its soft, two-syllable sound and its bold sense of "little fire" gives it a quiet spark, and for parents drawn to Irish heritage it offers authenticity and warmth without the overexposure of more familiar Celtic choices.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Aidan
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Aidan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2003 with 10,067 boys named Aidan (boy rank #39 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #326 for boys (1,043 US births). That's 287 places below its 2003 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Aidan Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Aidan the strongest states are Massachusetts, District of Columbia, New York.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | #130 | 515 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | #156 | 67 |
| 3 | New York | #166 | 1,178 |
| 4 | Rhode Island | #168 | 54 |
| 5 | Delaware | #171 | 21 |
| 6 | New Hampshire | #174 | 61 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #174 | 518 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #181 | 187 |
| 9 | Virginia | #202 | 430 |
| 10 | Maine | #203 | 18 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Aidan in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eden | Perfect | Female | Hebrew |
Famous People Named Aidan
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Aidan.
- Aidan Quinn — TV Actor (1959)
Looking for names like Aidan?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Aidan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Aidan against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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