alten

Alten is a toponym used for several localities in German-speaking Europe. In Germany and the Netherlands, various villages, districts, and municipalities bear the name Alten. The exact status of each Alten varies: some are independent municipalities, others are smaller localities or divisions within larger towns. The name is of Germanic origin and is believed to derive from the word alt, meaning old, possibly indicating an ancient settlement or estate.

Linguistically, Alten also appears as an inflected form of the adjective alt in German. It is used before plural nouns or after determiners that require the -en ending, as in die alten Häuser (the old houses) or wir erinnern uns an die alten Zeiten (we remember the old times). This reflects standard German adjective declension patterns in contexts involving definite articles and plural nouns.

There is no single Alten that dominates in prominence or population; rather, the name is distributed across multiple regions. When the reference is ambiguous, disambiguation usually relies on accompanying administrative information such as the district, state, or municipality.

See also: Alten (disambiguation); Alt.