Holiday Calendar

National Aaron Day

Next celebratedThursday, May 27, 2027

On Mount Hor, Moses took the priestly vestments off his brother Aaron and put them on Aaron's son. National Aaron Day lands on a name the reference books still refuse to translate.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEMay 27
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A name day that arrives without a signature.

National Aaron Day has no traceable point of creation. Holiday listings repeat a single uncredited account about friends honouring a friend, and a full-text search of the US Federal Register returns nothing for the phrase.

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INTRO

The name America took eighty-eight years to notice

National Aaron Day celebrates a name that took a remarkably long time to arrive. For the first eighty-eight years that the United States kept a national record of baby names, Aaron never once reached the top 100. Its best showing across that entire stretch was 106th.

Then came 1968. Aaron entered the top hundred that year, and it has not dropped out since. The run reached 56 unbroken years in the most recent federal data.

Only 19 boys' names managed that. Twelve of the other eighteen had been sitting in the top hundred since the record opened in 1880, which puts Aaron among the two newest arrivals in the most immovable tier of American boys' names. It is also a name the reference books decline to translate.

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ORIGINS

Aaron Day history

INTRODUCTION

On the summit of Mount Hor, in front of the whole Israelite community, Moses took the priestly vestments off his brother and put them on his brother's son. Aaron died on that mountain. Israel mourned him for thirty days.

He was Moses's older brother and his spokesman before Pharaoh. He is also the man who cast the golden calf while Moses was up Mount Sinai. The record keeps both facts and does not reconcile them.

CHAPTER 01

A name the reference books will not translate

The odd part is the name itself. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces it back to the Hebrew Aharon and then stops, saying only that it is probably of Egyptian origin.

Behind the Name is blunter, calling it most likely of unknown Egyptian origin. So the founding figure of the Hebrew priesthood may carry a name from the language of the country the Exodus story has him leaving.

The competing theories are Hebrew, and they offer high mountain or exalted. Both reference works present these as theories rather than as translations, which is why the confident one-line meaning that circulates alongside this day has nothing standing behind it.

CHAPTER 02

The day that came with nothing attached

National Aaron Day arrives with none of that history explaining it. Every listing that accounts for the day repeats one uncredited sentence about friends wanting to honour a friend. It travels from one listing to the next unchanged, and it cites nothing.

A full-text search of the US Federal Register returns nothing for the phrase.

What the day does have is people who mark it, posting on the date each May. That is how most minor name days actually live. The name itself had done the hard part long before anyone thought to give it a date.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Aaron's beard names a plant

English speakers applied the name to several hairy-looking plants, including St John's wort.

Aaron's rod enters botany

The biblical rod became a botanical term, and by 1849 an ornamental one as well.

America starts counting names

The federal name record opens, with Aaron already present at 131st.

The American low point

Aaron slid to 270th, the worst position it holds anywhere in the record.

The biggest year for Aarons

American families registered 15,312 boys under the name, more than in any other single year.

Aaron peaks at 28th

The name reached its highest American rank, and has slipped gradually down the list since.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Aaron Day

RECORDS

A name day with 144 years of federal data underneath it.

Most observances leave no mark in public statistics, but this one sits on top of a federal dataset that has published every American given name annually since 1880. Britain's Office for National Statistics keeps a comparable register for England and Wales, so the day's subject can be counted rather than merely asserted.

PRIESTHOOD

The name doubles as a job title

Exodus appoints Aaron and his four sons to serve as priests, and his descendants were promised the priesthood after him. The name therefore belonged to an office as much as to a person, and that office passed down the family line.

LATECOMER

Ancient name, recent English habit

Aaron reached English only after the Protestant Reformation, thousands of years after the figure it names. Its familiarity across the English-speaking world is a fairly modern development rather than an inherited one.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Aaron Day by the Numbers

606,066
US boys named Aaron since 1880
4,370
US girls named Aaron since 1880
68th
Aaron's US popularity rank in 2023
123
Aaron's age at death in the Bible

GOOD TO KNOW

National Aaron Day Around the World

England and Wales

the name is in steady retreat, falling from 113th in 2019 to 180th in 2025

Switzerland

ranked 14th in 2024, higher than in any English-speaking country on record

France

ranked 20th in 2024, far above its standing in England and Wales

Turkey and Indonesia

the same name travels as Harun, a relative English speakers rarely recognise

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Aaron Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up an Aaron's birth year

The Social Security Administration publishes a rank and count for every year back to 1880. Find where the name sat on the list the year someone you know was born.

CHECK

Check what the name actually means

Check an etymological reference before repeating a translation you have seen passed around. Behind the Name sets out what is known and what is guesswork.

MESSAGE

Message the Aarons on your list

The day exists to single out the people carrying the name. For most of the people who mark it, a note on the date is the entire observance.

READ

Read the passage that made him a priest

Exodus is where Aaron and his four sons are appointed to serve. Sefaria hosts the passage in translation alongside the Hebrew.

COMPARE

Compare two countries' name registers

The Office for National Statistics publishes a full rank table for England and Wales each year. Set it beside the American figures and the two countries pull apart.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Aaron Day?

1 / 8

What do major etymological references say about the origin of the name Aaron?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing located, so May 27 is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

8sources
5primary records
3independently dated
Primary records
US Social Security Administration2023
Popular Baby Names: national data by year of birth, 1880 to 2023
Every US given name, counted by year and sex, back to 1880.
View source
Office for National Statistics2025
Baby names in England and Wales: boys, full rank and count tables
Annual rank and count for every boy's name registered in England and Wales.
View source
Sefaria
Numbers 20:23-29, Numbers 33:39 and Exodus 28:1 (JPS translation)
The scriptural account of Aaron's priesthood, his death on Mount Hor, and his age.
View source
US Federal Register
Federal Register documents full-text search API
Searchable full text of federal proclamations, rules and notices since 1994.
View source
US Social Security Administration
Top names of the 1990s
SSA's published decade ranking, placing Aaron 31st with 128,377 boys.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name2025
Aaron: meaning, origin and history
Etymology, cross-language forms, name days, and current rankings in fourteen countries.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Aaron
Douglas Harper's entry, with the dated English compounds Aaron's beard and Aaron's rod.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Aaron, biblical figure
Arvid S. Kapelrud on Aaron's priesthood, his lineage, and the golden calf.
View source
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