Welcome to all VODDEN’s & variations from around the world!

Origin of name

In one source, it appears that the name Vodden was of Anglo-Saxon origin where it was the name given to one of their pagan gods, Odin.

However, in Viking/Norse history of the 7th century, it is believed to derive from their pagan god ‘Woden’, as in the weekday name of Wednesday or more properly ‘Wodens-day’. The first King of England in the very first century was named for the god, Woden.

On a recent visit to Wales, I obtained a wallchart depicting the English Royal Pedigree through the ages. It begins with King Woden at the beginning of the first century and claims to have been fully researched by professional genealogists over many years. It is published by Ancestors of Dover Ltd., Bowles Well Gardens, Dover Road, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 5NP, UK and was copyrighted in 2001 by Nicholas Humphery-Smith, Revised in 2007.

It is interesting to speculate that the Vodden’s may be related to King Woden of the first century. Does that make us royalty or related to royalty? Hmm…

Coat of Arms

While commercial websites try to sell you a Vodden Coat of Arms, such as this one, in fifty years of research we have found no evidence there is or ever was a Coat of Arms for this surname or any of its variants.  The plaques you can buy come with a tiny subscript saying “this is what a typical family crest might look like“. Nor would one expect to find a Coat of Arms.  The Voddens were from farming and labourer classes – being the proverbial “Ag Labs” or “Cordwains“.

Organization of pages

These pages will contain information of different family groups as they remained in England, emigrated to other parts of the world, and DNA results and provides us with space to feature the many interesting Vodden descendants from the past or the present. We will prepare a page for any person or family group for whom we have pictures or information sufficient to make a page worthwhile.

The further back one probes, the more difficult it becomes to obtain clear and complete records. Sometimes all we can get is a glimpse of a family member, or an incomplete grouping too sparce to fit into a tree.  We record these sightings on the page Random Sightings, always hoping to find more information to provide a stronger link.  Some Ancients left quite a comprehensive documentary records.

If you have anything you would like to see included or that you think might be interesting to others please contact us by e-mail at linda.hauley@gmail.com, or by writing to: Linda J. Hauley, 222 Chambers Crescent, Newmarket, ON, Canada L3X 1T1.

Name Frequency

Early records around the 1841 Census show the main concentration of Voddens was in South Wales and Devonshire with a smattering of single families in the other southern counties and in the north in Cumberland in England.

Index: Pink 0; Green 1-24; Blue 25-70; Purple 70-140

In the Census for England and Wales taken in 1891, there were only 239 households with the name Vodden while shortly before on the United States Federal Census of 1880 there were only 20 households. This increases to 32 households in the 1920’s. In Canada on the 1851 Census there were only 9 households all in Ontario which increased to 40 by 1881. In 1911 the movement westward from Ontario to Manitoba and of 64 households, 6 remained in the prairie provinces while 9 households had moved to the most western province of British Columbia.

Distribution of the name

Distribution of the name Vodden was limited to mainly Devon, Cornwall and Glamorgan, South Wales in 1890, with New York, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and California having one or two families living there in the 1880 Federal Census.

While in the United States in the 1920’s, there were still a few families in the original states above, now families had moved into the Dakota’s, Oregon, Texas but many more had moved to sunny California. Canada had gained a few more families in the province of Ontario with a couple of families now on the west coast in British Columbia.

In the United Kingdom there was a movement to the city of London and to the county of Yorkshire having now depleted in Devon but remaining in the coal mining area in South Wales. Also at this time there was an exodus to Australia.

Name Variants

Vodden is even now a difficult name for people to spell.  Back in the sixteenth century the spelling of surnames was much less settled.  There are many spellings extent of the family name.  Some of this was as a result of phonetic usage, some of it due to changes in style and some a lack of literacy.  Common forms of the name in the 16th century included Vawden, Vowden, Vawdon, Vowdon, Voden, Vouden, Voudon, Vaden, Vandon, Bawden, Bowden, Bodden, Bawdon, Bowdon even Vousden but this is not a complete list.

Not infrequently an A is substituted for the O. This is more often an error either in original spelling or in transcription than a spelling variation, since its occurrence is inconsistent. The Latter Day Saints transcription project that resulted in the International Genealogical Index (the IGI), while the family historian’s best friend, does contain some doozies when it records Voddens.  These include many others, all quite understandable when one tries to decipher the original records from the 1600’s, but nonetheless a challenge.