'fire,' thus the anglicized name, Aidan, means 'little fire.' (In the U.S., Aiden is more commonly spelled with the 'en' ending.)īut there is another origin story here: a similar-sounding Turkish and Persian name, Aydin, has its own history and variants widely used among Islamic populations. The first and most expected is back to medieval Ireland, where the Gaelic name Aodhán (or Áedán) was inspired by the name of an Irish mythological god, Aodh (or Áed). The origins of this handsome name take us in two directions.