This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Dearden,' or 'Duerden,' or 'Durden.' The precise spot seems to be Dearden, near Edenfield, Bury, Lancashire The surname clung for a long time to the immediate district, as will be seen from the subjoined references:

George Durden, of Loveclough, 1640: Wills at Chester.

Robert Durden, of Whitefield, 1646: ibid.

Edward Duerden, of Castleton, 1631: ibid.

Elizabeth Dearden, of Middleton, 1630: ibid.

Thomas Dearden was rector of Bury, 1599: Baines' Lancashire.

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'Duredent,' i.e. hard tooth; compare Doubleday, Dent-de-fer, and Dandelion. Durden may be local, as a corruption of Dearden, but it is far more natural to consider it a corrupted form of the nickname; the evidence is all in favour of this view.

Philip Duredent, Buckinghamshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Roger Duredent, or Durdent, Derbyshire, ibid.

1577. Thomas Durden, or Durdant, or Durdent: Register of the University of Oxford.

1637. Married — Nicholas Durdent and Elizabeth Wyett: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1719. — Robert Durdant and Sara Lee: ibid.

1702. — William Metyard and Sarah Durden: St. George, Hanover Square.

1 for Dearden, q.v.

2 for the French Duredent, a nickname = Hard-Tooth [French dur(e, Latin dur-us, hard + dent, Latin dens, dentis, a tooth] Walter Duredent.— Close Rolls.

Evidently local, perhaps from a place so called near Edenfield in Bury, co. Lancaster. "The ancient and modern pronunciation of the name by the natives of Lancashire is Du-er-den," which Cowell, with fanciful ingenuity, interprets "a thicket of wood in a valley:" See B.L.G. The Deardens of Rochdale Manor claim descent from Elias de Duerden, temp. Hen. VI., but so early as the thirteenth century the name of Durden, Durdent, or Duredent is variously applied to a certain knight who may have been a progenitor of the family.

1. See Dearden. 2. An A.-Norm, sobriquet-Duredent, "hard tooth." See H.R.

Local. A corruption of Du—er—den, as still pronounced by the natives of Lancashire, England, where branches of the family reside, and which signifies, "A thicket of wood in a valley.""Doir—den."

Local. An old English word signifying a coppice or thicket of wood in a valley.

From Duredent (Lower). See Durand.

From Dourdan; a location name in France.

Dearden, in one form or another, is an old name in the parish of Rochdale, where it was well established during the 16th century (F.) and where it still remains. In 1823 Rochdale manor came into the possession of James Dearden, a Rochdale man, who was descended from Elias de Duerden in the reign of Henry VI. (W. W. and L.). Abel Deurden was a Rochdale lawyer in the time of Charles II.; and Robert Deardend was churchwarden of Holme in 1793 (W. W.). In the 13th century Duredent or Durdent was a Derbyshire name, and there were a few of the name in Bucks (H. R.). Dearden is a place near Edenfield, Bury, in Lancashire (L.).