Strider is an English word name meaning one who strides, also strongly associated with literary use.
R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, first published in 1954–55. It is the alias used by Aragorn son of Arathorn — the rightful king of Gondor in hiding — when he first meets the hobbits in the Prancing Pony inn at Bree.
The Rangers of the North gave him the name for his long-legged, purposeful gait, his habit of covering ground quickly and silently across wild country. The name is simultaneously humble and heroic: a man who moves without announcement, who earns trust slowly, whose true identity is larger than any nickname could contain. As a common English word, strider simply denotes one who strides — someone whose movement is long, deliberate, and ground-eating.
It shares roots with the Old English strīdan and the Proto-Germanic family of words relating to forceful, confident movement. Before Tolkien, it had no particular naming history, but it carried an implicit character: a strider is someone who does not shuffle or hurry nervously but moves with intention. Today Strider is used by parents who are unashamed Tolkien devotees and by those who simply like its sound and spirit — adventurous, self-possessed, slightly wild.
It belongs to a growing family of word-names and nature-names (Ranger, Wilder, Forrest) that favor active evocation over classical precedent. For children named Strider, the name is a constant quiet invitation: go far, move boldly, and let your identity reveal itself over time.