Holden
- Pronunciation
- [Hol-den]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From The Hollow In The Valley
- Origin
- English
About the Name Holden
Holden is an English place-name and surname meaning "deep valley" or "hollow valley" — from Old English hol (hollow, deep) plus denu (valley). The surname identified medieval English families originating from villages with this geography.
The single most influential American cultural anchor is fictional: Holden Caulfield, the alienated 16-year-old protagonist of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) — one of the most-read American novels of the 20th century and a foundational text of post-WWII American literary modernism. Holden Caulfield's voice and worldview anchored the name in American literary memory.
Holden's transition from surname to American first name accelerated through the late 20th century, partly through the Catcher in the Rye effect on American naming. The name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 1990 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. Notable contemporary bearers include American actor Holden Stoner, country singer Holden Roy Spradlin, and various contemporary athletes. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the surname-style sophistication, the in-built literary register from the Catcher in the Rye anchor, and the popular -den ending family. Two firm syllables, hard consonants, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-professional. Common nicknames Holdy and the rare Holdie each occasionally appear. There are no significant international variants since the name's first-name use is essentially American.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Holden
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Holden by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2018 with 1,731 boys named Holden (boy rank #217 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #297 for boys (1,140 US births). That's 80 places below its 2018 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 Holden 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 Holden the strongest states are Wyoming, Vermont, West Virginia.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wyoming | #87 | 29 |
| 2 | Vermont | #95 | 19 |
| 3 | West Virginia | #119 | 170 |
| 4 | South Dakota | #120 | 101 |
| 5 | Maine | #149 | 47 |
| 6 | North Dakota | #153 | 75 |
| 7 | Alaska | #161 | 48 |
| 8 | Iowa | #161 | 234 |
| 9 | New Hampshire | #165 | 62 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #168 | 306 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #508 | 144 |
| 2 | California | #436 | 751 |
| 3 | New York | #406 | 399 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | #378 | 119 |
| 5 | Nevada | #373 | 74 |
| 6 | New Mexico | #355 | 30 |
| 7 | Florida | #349 | 499 |
| 8 | Arizona | #345 | 209 |
| 9 | Connecticut | #340 | 83 |
| 10 | Texas | #328 | 1,033 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Holden in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Holden
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Holden.
- Holden Roberto was an Angolan independence leader who founded the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA).
Looking for names like Holden?
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 Holden to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Holden against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).