This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Baldwin,' popularly, and under French influence, Bodin and Boden (v. Bawden); compare Godin for Godwin, which see.

Bodin de Langehull, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Boyedinus de Gaunt, Lincolnshire, ibid.

Bodyn de Kant (London citizen), ibid.

Walter Bodin, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Dalliryver, d. Boden Moylle, 1588:

Reg. St. Columb Major.

Richow, d. of Boden Moylle, 1591: ibid.

Thomas, s. of Bawden Moylle, 1595: ibid.

Margaret Bowden, 1600: ibid.

(a) Local, 'of Bowden,' a parish in East Cheshire, near Altrincham.

1583. Thomas Boden, Derbyshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1504. John Boden, of Childer-Thornton, husbandman: Wills at Chester.

1694. Baptised — Thomas, s. of Bodwim Apps: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1568. John Bodenham, Hart Hall: Register of the University of Oxford.

From the lands of Bowden in Roxburghshire."For a period of about two hundred years various persons of the same surname are witnesses to a number of charters These are not mentioned as holding lands in the parish, but would appear to have been kindly tenants of the monastery who took their name from the barony. The monks of different periods were in the practice of sub-letting the lands of the barony, and some of the lands, on whatever condition originally let, came at length to be held by the parties in hereditary right" (OPS., I, p. 288). Between c, 1200 and c. 1240 one or more individuals named Richard de Boulden witnessed charters by Cecilia de Molle, Symon Maulverer, etc. (Kelso, 148,151, 157,194). Master Richard de Bouldone, parson of the parish of Edilstone, rendered homage in 1296 (Bain, II, p. 212). William de Bolden was Abbot of Kelso in 1370 (Morton, p. 92), and in 1399 we have mention of the tenement of John de Bolden in Westerkelsow (Kelso, 522). About 1450 Andrew Boldane was a burgess of Arnbroath (RAA., II, 94). The name is also found in Edinburgh in the seventeenth century as Boudoun and Bowdoun (Edinb. Marr.).

Ó Buadain is the Irish form of this name and its Gaelic origin as an O name is corroborated by its appearance in the Elizabethan Fiants as O'Boden, the location in that case being Kilkenny. In the neighbouring county of Kildare, however, Boden or Bowden is an English surname and most of the Bodens in Ireland are of English origin, Bowden being the more numerous in all relevant documents from the sixteenth century to the present day. The earliest form of the name is Boudon. In the sixteenth century We also find Boding. Bodingstown alias Bodenston appears in a Fiant of 1569 relating to Co. Meath.

The better known Bodenstown in Co. Kildare, birth—placeand burial place of Wolf; Tone, was formerly also spelt Bowdenstown. There are few Bodens or Bowdens in the Ó Buadain country; families so called are found mainly in Oriel to-day, and similarly in 1659, when Petty's “census” was taken, Boding was recorded as a principal Irish name in the barony of Ferrard, Co. Louth. (In that document the word Irish is used in a wide sense and is not confined to Gaelic-Irish).

(French-Teut.) 1 the French Bodin = the O.Frank. pers. name Bodo (v. under Bode) + the Frenchdim. suff -in.

2 the French Baudin for Baldwin, q.v.

(English) belonging to Bowden = 1 the Bent or Crooked Valley [Q.E. boga. a bend, bow +denu, a valley) 2 (for Bold-den(e) = the Hall-Valley [Old English bold, a hall, mansion] Bowden, Roxburgh, occurs as Bouldene, c. 1150; Bowelden, c. 1250.

The well known name Boden, perpetuated in the place Bodenstown, is of English origin; but there is also a rare Irish name Ó Buadáin so anglicized. SIF 19

Bodin or Boding, a prse-Domesd. name.

The B.'s were of Bowdon Hall, co. Derby, in the XV. cent. Yet they have a tradition that they are of Norman descent, and that the name was originally Bodin. In 1572 two protestant Walloons, Nich. and John Bowden, settled at Rye. Lansd. MS. 15. 70.