Ardern

This interesting name has a very ancient history, being of either Celtic or Anglo-Saxon origin. It is a regional surname from either the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire, or from the place called Arden in Cheshire, both of which share the same meaning and derivation, thought to be linguistically identical with the forest of the Ardennes in France and Belgium, from a Celtic word "ard" meaning "high", and used here in the sense of tall trees on hills. Arden in North Yorkshire is recorded as "Ardene" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and means "gravel or eagle valley", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "ear", gravel, or "eran", eagle, with "denn", valley. Ardern is a variant of the more familiar Arden, and is also found as Ardron and Hordern. Recordings from Lancashire Church Registers include the marriage of John Ardern and Anna Hall at Gorton on April 3rd 1662. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Heloise de Arderne, which was dated 1171, in the "Pipe Rolls of Norfolk", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.