Who started National Avery Day?

The name it honours is thoroughly documented, from an Anglo-Norman import to an American first name, but the observance is not. A search of the Federal Register and of establishment records turned up no founder and no starting year.

Is National Avery Day the same as Tex Avery Day?

No. Tex Avery Day falls on February 22 and honours the animator, and the City of Taylor, Texas held it in 2014 with the dedication of a Texas State Historical Marker.

What does the name Avery mean?

The reference works disagree. The Dictionary of American Family Names derives it from Alfred, meaning elf counsel, while Behind the Name also allows Alberich, meaning elf ruler, which is the source of the popular ruler of the elves reading.

National Avery Day

Next celebratedFriday, May 7, 2027

Plenty of Averys were named for a grandparent, a mother's maiden name, or somebody on television, and National Avery Day covers the lot. Hardly anyone was named for the origin, which is a Norman respelling of Alfred.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 7

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A day that arrived on calendars unannounced.

No founder, establishing act, or first observance has been located for National Avery Day, and the calendar entry carries no year. It circulates through holiday listings and posts made on the date, with its beginnings unrecorded.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday

INTRO

What five births in 1998 did to a boys' name

For more than a century Avery was a boy's name in the United States, and the federal birth records never wavered. Then five births changed the answer. National Avery Day belongs to a name whose turn is documented down to the individual birth.

The crossing came in 1998. That year the Social Security Administration counted 1,242 American girls given the name. It counted 1,237 boys.

Nothing about the name itself changed. What changed was who was receiving it, and by 2025 the girls outnumbered the boys by more than four to one. The Averys this day is for now sit on both sides of that line.

ORIGINS

Avery Day history

INTRODUCTION

The name arrived in England with the Normans. The Oxford-published Dictionary of American Family Names derives the surname from Aevery, a Middle English and Anglo-Norman French personal name that is itself a Norman form of Alfred.

Alfred is Old English Aelfraed, built from aelf, elf, and raed, counsel. A competing account sends the name through Alberich instead, which the Normans carried over as Auberi and which English turned into Aubrey. Alberich means elf ruler, which is where the familiar gloss, ruler of the elves, actually comes from.

CHAPTER 01

A surname promoted to a first name

The surname crossed to America and promptly got tangled. The same Oxford dictionary notes that among the seventeenth-century Puritan settlers in New England there was some confusion with the surname Averill.

The promotion to a first name is easiest to watch inside one family. Avery Robert Dulles was born in Auburn, New York, in 1918, the son of Janet Pomeroy Avery and John Foster Dulles. His given name was his mother's maiden surname, handed across intact.

CHAPTER 02

The cousin that moved first

Alberich's other English descendant made the move first. Behind the Name records that Aubrey has gone more often to girls since the mid-1970s. It credits a Bread song of that decade and the pull of the established feminine name Audrey.

CHAPTER 03

The day itself

The observance is the thinnest part of the record. A search of the Federal Register returns nothing for National Avery Day, while the same index carries the annual proclamations that create days by decree.

What the day has instead is the name, and the name has an unusually complete paper trail. A Norman import became an English surname, the surname became an American first name, and a federal statistical series dated the year it changed hands.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Nine boys open the record

The first year of Social Security's national name data ranks Avery 643rd among American boys, on nine births.

A maiden surname becomes a first name

Avery Robert Dulles is born in Auburn, New York, to Janet Pomeroy Avery and John Foster Dulles.

Avery reaches the girls' list

The name enters the Social Security top thousand for American girls for the first time, at rank 960 on 181 births.

Murphy Brown names her son

The sitcom gives the newborn the name Avery, in an episode set to air on 9 November.

Three girls in England and Wales

The earliest count in the Office for National Statistics thirty-year table records three girls given the name.

The American high point

Avery reaches rank 12 among American girls on 9,185 births, the highest it has placed on that list.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Avery Day by the Numbers

5,267: US girls named Avery, 2025
1,156: US boys named Avery, 2025
146 yrs: Unbroken years on US boys' list
178: England and Wales girls named Avery, 2025
106: England and Wales boys named Avery, 2025

GOOD TO KNOW

Averys who left a mark

Oswald Avery pinned down what genes are made of

Working with Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty in 1944, he showed that DNA rather than protein transforms the properties of cells, using Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Avery Brundage ran the Olympic movement for twenty years

He was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, from 1952 to 1972, and the IOC says he was the first of its presidents to have actually competed in the Games. He had qualified for the 1912 United States team in both the decathlon and the pentathlon.

An Avery became a cardinal without ever being a bishop

Pope John Paul II created Avery Dulles a cardinal on the steps of St Peter's Basilica in 2001. Fordham University calls him the first American named a cardinal who was not a bishop.

A fictional Avery won two Emmys in three years

Colleen Dewhurst won the Emmy for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series in both 1989 and 1991, listed each time for the character Avery Brown on Murphy Brown.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Avery Day

SOCIOLOGY

They called the asymmetry a gender contamination effect.

Stanley Lieberson, Susan Dumais and Shyon Baumann examined every white birth in Illinois from 1916 to 1989 and found that overall use of androgynous names was barely rising, while the willingness to use them rose among parents of daughters. They named the asymmetry a gender contamination effect.

SPELLING

One sound, several names in the tables

The Office for National Statistics ranks by the exact spelling written on the birth certificate and counts similar spellings separately. American tables split them too, so Averie ranked 701st among girls in the same year Avery ranked 37th.

EXPORT

The name is still arriving in England and Wales

The turn showed up in the American records first, and the England and Wales figures lagged a long way behind. The count of girls given the name in England and Wales did not reach a hundred in a year until 2019.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Avery Day

Look up the Avery in your life by birth year

The Social Security name tool returns a rank for every year back to 1880. Type in the name, switch between boy and girl, and watch the two lines swap places.

ASK

Ask an Avery where the name came from

Plenty of Averys inherited the name from a grandparent, a mother's maiden surname, or a character on television. The answer is usually more specific than anyone expects.

COMPARE

Compare two countries on the same day

The Office for National Statistics publishes its own rank and count for every registered name. Line it up against the American figures and the same name looks like two different names.

SETTLE

Settle the elf argument over dinner

One reference derives Avery from Alfred and reads it as elf counsel, another allows Alberich and reads it as elf ruler. Pick a side and make the case.

SEND

Send the card yourself instead of posting it

The day circulates through holiday listings and social posts, so anything on paper stands out. Address it to the Avery who will least expect one.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Avery Day?

1 / 8

In which year did American girls named Avery first outnumber American boys?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found, so schools, banks and offices keep normal hours.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

17sources

12primary records

10independently dated

Primary records

U.S. Social Security Administration2025

Popularity of a Name

Year-by-year rank and birth counts for any American name since 1880.