A variant of Corbin, from Old French corbeau meaning 'raven.'
Corben is a surname-derived given name whose roots stretch back to Norman French. It is a variant of Corbin, which descends from the Old French word 'corbeau,' meaning 'raven.' The raven was a creature of enormous symbolic weight in medieval Europe — associated with prophecy, battlefield omens, the Tower of London, and the Norse god Odin, who kept two ravens named Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory).
Carrying the raven in one's name was, in medieval heraldry, both a mark of dark nobility and keen intelligence. As a surname, Corbin and its variants appear throughout English and Anglo-Norman records from the twelfth century onward. The transition to a given name accelerated in the twentieth century, following the broader Anglo-American trend of adopting surnames as first names — a practice that began in aristocratic circles as a way of honoring maternal family lines and filtered into mainstream naming culture by the mid-1900s.
The spelling Corben adds a slight softening compared to Corbin, giving it a more contemporary feel while preserving the strong consonants that make it distinctive. In recent decades Corben has appeared in comics — veteran artist Richard Corben is celebrated for his dark fantasy and horror illustration — and in film and television, where it has occasionally been chosen for morally complex characters. It suits a wide range of personalities: rugged, artistic, or quietly mysterious.