The name Biden is of Irish and English origin, with roots in both Gaelic and Old English etymology, and is considered an Irish-American surname. Most genealogists trace Biden to the Irish surname Ó Beannáin or Ó Buadáin, meaning descendant of Beannán or Buadán, which are old Irish personal names meaning fair, white, or victorious. The Biden family in America traces its ancestry to County Mayo and County Galway in western Ireland, where the name was common, and also to County Kildare. Another theory suggests Biden is an anglicized form of the English surname Button or Biden from Old English, from places like Biddenden in Kent, England, meaning pasture for young goats, from Old English biden meaning settlement. The name Biden is relatively rare, with fewer than a few thousand bearers in the US, concentrated in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware where Irish immigrants settled. President Joe Biden's family history shows his maternal ancestors were Irish from Ballina, County Mayo who emigrated during the Great Famine in the 1840s-1850s, and his paternal ancestors were English with some Irish admixture. The Biden name has been in America since the 19th century, with early records in Maryland. Like many Irish surnames, its spelling varied as Bidon, Byden, and Biden before standardizing. Today, Biden is most famous as the surname of the 46th US President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
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