Horden Family History

Variant of Hordern with dissimilation of the second r. The name was sometimes confused with Harden; compare Michaell Harden 1605 in IGI (Baswich Staffs). Perhaps from Hore Down in Ilfracombe (about 7 miles from Braunton) but this is not recorded as a place-name before 1525 and it is not known if it had an associated farm in medieval times.

Alternatively, it may be a variant of another name (compare Hordern Harden). Probably a variant of Hawthorn from Hawthorn in Easington (Durham). A family from this place had acquired lands in Kirkinner (Wigtownshire) by the 15th century.

From Horden in Easington (Durham) which is recorded as Horeden in a 12th-century copy of a document from about 1040. The place-name derives from Old English horu ‘filth dirt’ + denu ‘valley’.