In conclusion, we have carried out a comprehensive analysis of different methodologies to calculate the freeatom vdW radius for hydrogen. Our examination of multiple definitions derived from system-independent approaches, as well as estimations from molecular systems where a hydrogen atom is found in a nearly closed-shell isolated state, shows that the R free vdW for the hydrogen atom is 3.16±0.06 Bohr. Remarkably, a previously revealed connection between the vdW radius and atomic dipole polarizability allowed us to define the free vdW radii for all atoms in a consistent manner solely based on their electronic polarizability. These new values can be used to consistently compute the effective vdW radius of an atom in a molecule, enabling accurate calculations of non-covalent interactions. Furthermore, the effect of the molecular environment of vdW radii can be taken into account by rescaling them using projected electron densities. It is reassuring that wildly different definitions for the vdW radius converge to essentially the same value when using straightforward physicochemical arguments for extrapolating to the free-atom limit. In addition, the excellent agreement between the polarizability formula and explicit QED calculations hints at a deeper definition of the vdW radius based on an atom interacting with the quantized electromagnetic field. More work is needed to extend this connection to many-electron atoms.