Caden

I've found the name Cadan in the book Enwau Cymraeg I Bant (Welsh names for children) by Heini Gruffudd, published in 1980. The book says it aims to provide a scholarly list of traditional Welsh names. Cadan is said to come from cad = battle, and nant, meaning small brook or stream. I believe this may be the origin of Caden, with the spelling slightly mutated. I have also heard Cadan as an old Cornish name, which is a language closely related to Welsh.

Caden means "son of war" or "son of battle"

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Although Caden has become popular due to it's trendy sound, however it does have legitimate historical etymology, unlike some of the horrendous trendy amalgamous names that have risen up during our generation... The name comes from the Gaelic surname MacCadáin (son of Cadán). The given name Cadán derives from the Irish name Cathán, meaning "battle."

I cannot speak to the whole of those who have chosen the name "Caden" for their children, but we did not have any interest in the popularity of the sound "ayden". Meanings were very important to us in name selection and although we obviously liked the name itself, it was selected because its meaning in Arabic is *companion* or *good friend*. So, for our family and for our purposes, the origin of this name is Arabic and its meaning is *companion*. We weren't just going with a fad. (When we named him we had never even met another person with that name. We thought it was going to be unique! Lol.) Although we did feel free to alter the spelling to our liking because we were moving into the foothills of the Cascade Mountains when I was pregnant with him, so we changed the K to a C as a nod toward his place of birth.

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I read recently that the name in English supposedly means *fighter* or *little battle*. Does anyone have any background on why that might be?

If it's inspired by taking the "son of" off "son of Cadan", doesn't that just make it a modern variant spelling of Cadan?