i was looking to see if anyone had information on the surname Cowden? i have done alot of research on the name a anglicized version of Coldin and have found that the ancient spelling is Choille-dun a gaelic word for Caledonia as well. a long time ago a history teacher in scotland with the same name told me that the name was pictish in origin from the kinross area which made me research cowden placenames within that vicinity. what i found is that the name cowden is used in over a dozen places in scotland concentrated mostly in areas that were consider areas populated by the caledonii tribes, there is also a mt. colden on isle of mann. i am not sure what to make of this information. also in my research my ancestor that left from scotland to ireland was a MacCowden but cannot find any reference to any MacCowdens in scotland but have found passenger list with them arriving in canada, australia, and america with MacColden,MacCowden, and MacCowdin. could someone help me make sense of his information.