Hayden was born on October 2, 1877 to Charles Trumbull Hayden and Sallie Calvert Davis in Hayden's Ferry, Arizona Territory (renamed Tempe in 1878). Charles Hayden was a Connecticut-born merchant and freight operator who had moved west due to a lung ailment and homesteaded a claim on the south bank of the Salt River. Sallie Davis was an Arkansas-born schoolteacher who served as vice president of the Arizona Territorial Suffrage Association during the 1890s.

Carl Hayden was the first United States Senator to serve seven terms.

Carl Hayden's Family Tree