2,114 Global SODEN Family Members

SODEN Family History

This unusual name derives from the Olde French "Soudan" (Arabic "sultan" a ruler) and was originally given as a nickname either to someone who behaved in an aristocratic manner or to one who played the part of a Sultan in a medieval pageant. The surname is first recorded in the early 13th Century, (see below). One, Robert le Sowden appears in the 1279, Hundred Rolls of Buckinghamshire. In the "modern" idiom, the name is spelt Sowden, Soden, Soltan, Soldan and Sultan. The former two variations are well recorded in London Church Registers from the early 17th Century.