Bible-inspired baby names that start with the Jay-sound abound: There's the classic biblical boy name James which comes from the New Testament, the evergreen biblical patriarch name Jacob which traces its roots to the Old Testament, and the seventies' baby name hit Jason which has biblical associations from Jason of Thessalonica, a Christian convert featured prominently in the New Testament.
But what about Jayden, the male-leaning unisex name that skyrocketed in popularity in the aughts? Is Jayden a biblical name, too?
For all the Christian parents who love the name Jayden and were hoping it might have biblical credentials, we have both good and bad news. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: There's no Jayden in the Bible.
The good news is that if you take the name Jayden and swap out a few letters, you'll get a perfectly legitimate biblical name: Jadon. Not only does Jadon appear in the Bible, its biblical bearer was one of the good guys—something that can't be said of all biblical names. Plus, the name has a positive meaning derived from Hebrew, which further adds to its appeal as a baby name possibility.
To learn more about the biblical character called Jadon, the meaning of the name, and the reason why it's difficult (but not impossible) to consider Jayden a variant of the biblical name Jadon, read on.
Names as similar as Jadon and Jayden could easily have the same origins. Think about Jeremiah and Jeremy, for example. Jeremiah is the biblical original, the version you'll find in most English transliterations of the Bible. Jeremy, on the other hand, is commonly considered an offshoot of Jeremiah and can therefore be considered a Bible-inspired name, a nod to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.
However, in the case of Jadon and Jayden, it doesn't seem that the latter evolved from the former. Instead, Jayden, along with homonym Jaden, seems to be a modern invention, born out of contemporary parents' love for Jay-beginning names, combined with an interest in den-ending boys' names which began in the 1990s and reached unprecedented heights in the following decades.
In fact, before the 1990s, Jayden along with the spelling variants Jaden and Jaiden, was virtually unheard of as an American baby name. Then, seemingly out of the blue, both Jaden and Jayden entered the U.S. Top 1000 Boys' Names List for the first time in 1994, and Jaiden followed suit in 1999. However, if you analyze the U.S. Social Security Administration's (SSA) name data, you'll notice that prior to the rise of Jayden and its multiple spelling variants, rhyming cousins Hayden and Braden/Brayden had already been trending, and a little later names like Aiden, Caden and Kayden joined the roster.
The vast majority of the den-ending names that began their ascent to baby name stardom around the turn of the century were new inventions, previously obscure names that were literally unheard of a century earlier.
While the overall trend of inventing and using den-ending two-syllable names for baby boys undoubtedly played a major role in the rise of Jayden and its multiple variants, there's one event that, we think, sealed the success of the name: the birth of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's son Jaden Smith in 1998.
Though we can't be sure about the meaning behind Jaden's name, it seems to be a nod to his mother, Jada, especially since Jaden Smith's sister, born in 2000, was bestowed the name Willow (Jada and Will, Jaden and Willow—see what we mean?).
Given the circumstances under which Jaden and Jayden entered the American baby name lexicon, it seems unlikely that parents were thinking about the biblical Jadon when they picked Jayden or Jaden for their newborn sons. Thus, all in all, it would go against the grain to call these modern J-names Bible-inspired names.
It's worth noting, though, that the biblical name Jadon did gain some fraction between 1998 and 2015, though it never even made it to the Top 300. Those who picked Jadon over Jayden and Jaden were undoubtedly aware of Jadon's biblical origins, and of course it's not impossible, that some may have seen Jayden and Jaden as variants of Jadon, and even picked one of these variants based on that.
In the end, even though Jayden and Jaden are definitely not biblical (as in, they don't appear as names in the Bible), it's not completely out of bounds to call them Bible-inspired—but only if you consider them variants of Jadon.
If you're delighted that there's a true biblical alternative to the name Jayden, you'll probably want to know all about its biblical bearer. So, let's talk about the biblical character called Jadon for a moment.
In the contemporary US, the names Jayden, Jaden and Jadon count as unisex names that have been used for both boys and girls. In the Bible, however, the name Jadon only appears as a male name.
We learn about the biblical Jadon in Nehemiah 3:7, where he is described as one of the men who helped repair the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah's leadership. The verse also mentions that Jadon was from Meronoth, an obscure biblical place that's referenced only twice in the Bible, the other time being in connection to Jehdeiah the Meronothite, a keeper of the royal donkeys under David (1 Chronicles 27:30).
Aside from the biblical character bearing the name Jadon, you might also be interested in the meaning of Jadon. Biblical names are famous for carrying deeper meanings, which makes the Bible such a great source of baby names for parents looking for meaningful monikers for their offspring. Also biblical scholars have long been fascinated by the meanings of personal names found in Scripture and how they relate to the biblical narrative; however, they don't always agree on each others' interpretations.
As for the meaning of Jadon, it's usually derived from the Hebrew word for "judge", and depending on which source you consult, Jadon's biblical meaning is given as "judge", "whom God has judged", "whom God will judge", or "he will judge"[1-5].
On baby name sites, the meaning "thankful" or "grateful" is also commonly given; however, if you actually look up the name Jadon in Bible dictionaries, its proposed meaning is usually related to the word "judge" in one way or another, with the notable exception of Strong's Concordance, which does indeed propose the meaning "thankful"[6].
If you decide to go with the tried-and-true variant Jayden, which is not a biblical name per se, there are other ways you can express your family's Christian faith. One way is to incorporate some Christian symbolism into your baby's nursery, for example by hanging a copy of this calming blue name sign on the nursery wall. This exclusive Names and Nursery sign features a hand-painted letter J inspired by one of the most multi-faceted Christian symbol—the mountains—and is free for personal use.