Holiday Calendar

National Andrea Day

Next celebratedThursday, December 31, 2026

The same six letters are a boy's name in Italy and a girl's name in America: 3,143 Italian boys took it in 2024 against 1,628 American girls. December 31 hands the day to both readings.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 31
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

Holiday listings were carrying the date by autumn 2022.

No founder, organizer or establishment record has been located for National Andrea Day. It reaches people through holiday listings and social posts rather than through any sponsoring body, and the earliest such listing found was published on 30 September 2022, which dates that listing rather than the observance.

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INTRO

Two countries read the same six letters differently

Italy registered 3,143 baby boys named Andrea in 2024. The American files for the same year count 1,628 baby girls with the identical spelling. National Andrea Day sits on top of that split.

Both counts are of one spelling, not a family of them. Andreas, Andria and Andreea are counted as separate names, not as versions of this one.

A second National Andrea Day exists on May 10, kept by a different group. No source connects the two beyond the name.

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ORIGINS

Andrea Day history

INTRODUCTION

Andrea Verrocchio taught Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino. He was a Renaissance sculptor, and Andrea was his first name.

Behind the Name's masculine entry for the spelling lists exactly one language: Italian. It derives the name from Andreas, the same root that produced Andrew.

CHAPTER 01

English borrowed the spelling and changed its sex

Behind the Name dates the English feminine use to the 17th century. It also says the name was not common until the 20th.

So the Italian reading is the older one. The feminine reading that English speakers now take for granted is the borrower, and it was slow to take hold.

The two entries are not two etymologies. Behind the Name traces both of them to the same Ancient Greek element, so the split happened in the languages rather than in the root.

CHAPTER 02

A 51-year run in the American top 100

The American Andrea arrived properly in 1962. That year it entered the Social Security Administration's top 100 girls' names at rank 99.

It stayed for 51 consecutive years. The run ended after 2012, and it ended at rank 100 exactly, the last place inside the line.

In 2013 the name fell to 112. It has not returned to the top 100 in any year through 2025.

CHAPTER 03

The name is better documented than the day

Who first put Andrea on a December date is not something the record answers. The name itself is recorded year by year.

American files have put Andrea on the girls' side in every year it appears, back to 1881. Italy's register has put it on the boys' side in every year of its series, which begins in 1999. Neither country has changed its mind.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Andrea Day

ENDURANCE

Present in 143 of the 146 years of American birth records.

Andrea appears in the Social Security Administration's national files in 143 of the 146 years from 1880 to 2025. It is missing only from 1880, 1882 and 1883.

SCIENCE

The name on a Nobel physics citation

Andrea Ghez, born in New York in 1965, shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics while at UCLA. The prize motivation reads 'for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy'.

DECLINE

Italy is letting go of its old number one

In 1999 Andrea topped Istat's ranking of names given to boys in Italy, with 10,336 registrations. By 2024 it had slipped to tenth on Istat's list.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Andrea Day by the Numbers

#23
Andrea's best US rank, 1978
11,686
US girls named Andrea in 1981
#235
Andrea's US rank for girls, 2025

GOOD TO KNOW

National Andrea Day Around the World

Italy

Istat's register still recorded 135 baby girls named Andrea in 2024, far fewer than the boys given the same spelling.

United States

6,029 American boys have been registered as Andrea since 1880, and 16 of them in 2025.

Fourteen languages

Behind the Name lists Andrea as a feminine name in English, German, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Dutch, Croatian and Serbian.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Andrea Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up Andrea's rank in your birth year

The Social Security Administration publishes every given name recorded in the United States back to 1880. Find the year you were born and see where Andrea sat that year.

COMPARE

Compare the two national counts for one year

Istat's Conta nomi tool returns the number of Italian babies given a name each year from 1999. Enter Andrea, then switch the tool between M and F.

READ

Read the masculine and feminine entries side by side

Behind the Name files Andrea (1) and Andrea (2) as two different names that happen to be spelled alike. Open both and compare the languages each one lists.

ASK

Ask which spelling is on the birth certificate

The American files carry Andrea, Andreea, Andria and Andrina under four different entries. Ask an Andrea which one is on the certificate before assuming.

TOAST

Toast the Andreas in both readings of the name

The same spelling reaches Italian men and American women in the same year. Toast whichever Andrea is at your table.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Andrea Day?

1 / 9

In Italy, who is usually given the name Andrea?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance, and no proclamation, statute or resolution recognizing it was located.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

9sources
6primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2026-03
Popular Baby Names, national data (names.zip)
Every US given name recorded for five or more babies a year, 1880 to 2025.
View source
Istat2024
Conta nomi, the Italian baby-name counter
How many Italian babies received a given name each year, by sex, from 1999.
View source
Perseus Digital Library1889
Liddell and Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon: andreios
The 1889 lexicon entry for the Greek root behind Andrew and Andrea.
View source
The Nobel Prize2020
Andrea Ghez, Facts, 2020
Ghez's birth details, UCLA affiliation and the 2020 physics prize motivation.
View source
Federal Register
Documents search API
Full-text search of every document the US Federal Register has published.
View source
National Andrea Day (10th May)2016
About
The keepers of the May 10 Andrea Day on how their observance started.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Andrea (1)
The masculine Italian entry, its derivation from Andreas, and Andrea Verrocchio.
View source
Behind the Name
Andrea (2)
The feminine entry, the fourteen languages that use it, and its 17th-century English arrival.
View source
Behind the Name
Name Element ANDREIOS
The shared Ancient Greek root of both Andrea entries, glossed manly, masculine.
View source
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