This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname from the hamlet called 'Maden' in the parish of Rochdale in Lancashire. The placename means 'the meadow valley' derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century word 'maed', meaning 'meadow', with 'denn', a dene, valley. Locational surnames were given to the lord of the manor and especially to those former inhabitants of the place who moved away to live or work in another town or county, and where identified as, for instance, John of Maden. Thomas Maden, son of Thomas and Margerie, was christened at Rochdale in Lancashire on the 28th May 1592. One Patrick Maden was an early emigrant to the New World. He was granted a ticket to Antigua from the Barbadoes in October 1679. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anne Maden, married William Hopwood, which was dated 8th November 1543, Middleton by Oldham, Lancashire, during the reign of King Henry VIII, Bluff King Hal, 1509 - 1547. 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.