Family name origins & meanings
- German : habitational name from any of several places so named, for example in Westphalia and Switzerland.
- German : nickname from Middle High German heiden ‘heathen’, Old High German heidano, apparently a derivative of heida ‘heath’, modeled on Latin paganus (see Pain 1). The nickname was sometimes used to refer to a Christian knight who had been on a Crusade to fight in the Holy Land.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : of uncertain origin; possibly a shortened form of any of various ornamental names formed with German Heide- ‘heath’, for example Heidenberg, Heidenkorn, Heidenkrug, Heidenwurzel.
- English : variant spelling of Hayden.
- Dutch : shortened form of vanderHeiden.