Carden sounds nice to me, but I grew up with a family with this surname, so perhaps that is why it didn't startle me like it did most? I don't think of "garden" initially. I think of either "card", or "carding". IMHO, it's unique without sounding different to the point of raising scorn by those people who roll their eyes at original names.
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I like it. However, I would spell it Cardin. That is actually a surname. Carden may be also, I just have not heard of it.
Leslie
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