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National Bae Day

A fun observance on June 10 celebrating romantic partners, close friends, and loved ones through the lens of modern internet-era pet name culture.

Thursday

June 2027

Last updated March 19, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team

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YEARLY DATEJune 10

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYRelationships

SUBCATEGORYRomance

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

~2015

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

No documented founder or formal establishment record has been identified. The observance emerged in online holiday calendars around 2015, coinciding with the peak mainstream adoption of the slang term 'bae.'

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INTRO

Introduction

PHOTO

National Bae Day centers on a four-letter word that reshaped how a generation talks about love. The term "bae," a shortening of "baby" or "babe" rooted in African American English, began appearing in rap lyrics as early as 2004 before a viral 2012 meme and a Pharrell Williams single pushed it into the global lexicon.

The day gives couples, friends, and pet owners a reason to lean into the affection behind the word. With 65% of Americans already using "babe" as their primary term of endearment, June 10 formalizes what millions do daily: call someone their favorite name and mean it.

ORIGINS

Bae Day history

INTRODUCTION

The story behind National Bae Day starts not with a proclamation or a campaign, but with a linguistic shift inside African American English. "Bae" emerged as a clipped form of "baby" or "babe," following one of the oldest patterns in informal speech: shortening a common word until it becomes its own thing. The popular belief that it stands for "Before Anyone Else" is what linguists call a backronym, a meaning reverse-engineered after the word had already spread.

The term surfaced in recorded music before it ever went viral online. In 2004, teenage R&B singer JoJo used "bae" in her debut single "Leave (Get Out)," which reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over the next several years, hip-hop and R&B artists continued embedding the word into lyrics, giving it a steady presence in youth culture.

CHAPTER 01

From Meme to Mainstream

The tipping point came in October 2012 when a Twitter user posted a staged selfie with the caption "bae caught me slippin." The joke, a mocking parody of couples posting fake candid photos, ricocheted across Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. By July 2013, the phrase had been used over 7,800 times on Twitter alone, and BuzzFeed compiled a viral roundup of the parodies.

Mainstream music accelerated the word's reach. In 2014, Pharrell Williams released "Come Get It Bae" featuring Miley Cyrus, putting the term in a song title distributed worldwide. That same year, Oxford Dictionaries shortlisted "bae" for its Word of the Year, and the American Dialect Society nominated it as well, voting the derivative "baeless" as the year's "Most Unnecessary" word.

CHAPTER 02

A Holiday Takes Shape

By 2015, with "bae" firmly established in everyday vocabulary, online holiday calendars began listing June 10 as National Bae Day. No single creator, organization, or campaign has claimed credit for the date. The observance appears to have coalesced organically from social media culture, where users were already devoting posts and hashtags to their partners, best friends, and even pets they called "bae."

TIMELINE

National Bae Day Timeline

First recorded use in music

Singer JoJo used 'bae' in her debut hit 'Leave (Get Out),' marking one of the earliest documented appearances of the term in a commercially released song.

Viral meme ignites mainstream use

The 'bae caught me slippin' meme originated on Twitter in October 2012, spawning thousands of parody selfies and spreading the term across social media platforms.

Pharrell releases 'Come Get It Bae'

Pharrell Williams featured the term in the title of his single with Miley Cyrus, cementing 'bae' as a mainstream pop-culture fixture.

Oxford shortlists 'bae' for top honor

Oxford Dictionaries placed 'bae' on its Word of the Year shortlist alongside the eventual winner, 'vape,' recognizing the term's global spread through music and social media.

National Bae Day appears online

Online holiday calendars began listing June 10 as National Bae Day, though no founder or formal establishment record has been identified.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Bae Day

Write a handwritten letter to your bae

Skip the text message and put pen to paper. Research from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center shows that written expressions of gratitude strengthen emotional bonds, making a handwritten note a memorable gesture on a day built around affection.

TAKE

Take the love languages quiz together

Use the official 5 Love Languages quiz to discover whether your partner values words of affirmation, acts of service, gifts, quality time, or physical touch. Comparing results can open up a practical conversation about how each person prefers to give and receive care.

COOK

Cook a meal inspired by your first date

Recreate the cuisine from the restaurant where you and your bae first sat across from each other. The act of cooking together has been linked to increased cooperation and shared positive memories, turning a weeknight dinner into an anniversary-style experience.

CREATE

Create a digital photo album of your relationship

Collect your best photos, screenshots of funny texts, and saved voice memos into one shared album. Services like Google Photos offer free shared albums that both partners can add to over time, building a living archive of the relationship.

DONATE

Donate to a relationship support organization

Direct your appreciation outward by contributing to groups that help couples in crisis. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides 24/7 support for people in abusive relationships, and even a small donation helps fund lifeline services for those whose partnerships need professional intervention.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Bae Day

It reflects how internet culture creates holidays

National Bae Day emerged without a founder, legislation, or institutional backing. Its adoption through hashtags, memes, and social media posts illustrates a 21st-century pattern in which observances form organically around viral language rather than top-down declarations.

It documents a real-time linguistic shift

Oxford Dictionaries shortlisted 'bae' for Word of the Year in 2014, placing a clipped African American English term alongside formal vocabulary candidates. The American Dialect Society nominated it the same year, marking one of the fastest slang-to-dictionary pipelines in modern English.

Pet names measurably strengthen relationships

Research shows that 87% of Americans and 74% of Europeans use pet names for their partners, and couples who do are 16% more likely to report being happy. Terms of endearment trigger the release of bonding neurochemicals like dopamine and oxytocin, reinforcing emotional attachment.

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