Holden is an English surname and place name from the Old English hol denu, meaning "deep valley" or "hollow valley". Its literary fame comes from Holden Caulfield, the restless narrator of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In the United States Holden rose from number 453 in 2000 to a peak of 217 in 2018 and ranks 297th among boys' names in 2025.