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[Facts] Aden and Adin
I've been doing family research, and have found an Aden and an Adin back in the 1700s. The name Aden shows up on the SSA popularity charts starting in 1880. Now days, it's one of the 50 million spellings of Aiden/Aidan/Aydynnnn etc. but does anyone know its usage back in the Old Days? Most of the siblings of the Adens and Adins in my family tree have the "normal" Biblical type names (Sarah, Hannah, Samuel etc.) plus a few of the weirder Biblical ones (Asahel, Nehemiah, Rhoda) & other Puritan gems (Freelove, Wait).
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I am sure our resident biblical scholars will have more to say, but Adin is found in the Bible as a man's name (e.g. in Ezra 2:15). So its use among your ancestors was very likely as nothing other than an obscure biblical name which caught someone's eye, and Aden may have been just a spelling variant. Aden is also the name of a gulf in the Arabian Sea, near the Suez Canal. It's interesting that it started showing up in the SSA in the 1880s. The building of the canal in the 1860s may have called parents' attention to it as a possible baby name.
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Thanks! Adin didn't show up in my "Who's Who in the Bible" book-- I guess I should read the bible more carefully! I had no idea about the Suez Canal gulf, either. Interesting. The SSA database starts in 1880, I don't know if Aden was used before that with any regularity.
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Strong's Concordance is a more comprehensive source for Bible names (and other words, of course) that are found in the KJV Bible.There is an on-line version at http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html
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Two suggestions: perhaps a non-standard (by modern standards!) pronunciation of Eden, or - less likely - a place-name used as a human name. Also from a semi-biblical part of the world, so it might have seemed suitable.
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That's an idea! I haven't found any Edens, but that makes sense. Thanks!
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