# Dryden (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/dryden/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

An English and Scottish habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 5,378 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,339 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 57,409 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.2% (5,209 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdɹaɪdən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English drȳġe (“dry”) + denu (“valley”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Dryden in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 87% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 7.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 1.4% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Dryden in the United States and the Kingdom of England.

## People named Dryden

- John Dryden, 17th-century English poet and playwright (1631–1700)
- Spencer Dryden, American drummer (1938–2005)
- Hugh Latimer Dryden, American aeronautical scientist and civil servant (1898–1965)
- John F. Dryden, American businessman and philanthropist (1839-1911)
- Konrad Dryden, American music writer

## Similar surnames

Darden, Durden, Dearden, Drayton, Dorton.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.