Holiday Calendar

National Benjamin Day

Next celebratedMonday, June 7, 2027

Rachel named the boy Ben-oni with her dying breath; his father overruled her and called him Benjamin. June 7 marks the name with no saint attached, unlike the March 31 feast five European calendars keep.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEJune 7
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

Attested by the people who keep it.

The record for National Benjamin Day is one of circulation rather than of founding: greetings for the name travel on social platforms, and every trail toward a creator or a founding document ends at holiday listing sites. The one newsroom greeting located was published on March 31, the saint's feast, rather than on June 7.

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

56 years to climb from 155th to sixth

Benjamin nearly went out of American fashion altogether. In 1960 it ranked 155th among boys' names, its lowest point in the whole federal record. National Benjamin Day now falls on a name that has climbed all the way back.

Getting there took fifty-six years. Benjamin reached sixth place in 2016, its best showing in a hundred and forty-six years of federal name lists. It climbed the whole way without a single breakout year.

The climb is not a trick of the rankings. Over the same span the share of listed American boys given the name rose to 0.77 percent, more than seven times its low. That is a name getting genuinely more common, not merely better placed.

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ORIGINS

Benjamin Day history

INTRODUCTION

Rachel died on the road to Ephrath, the place Genesis calls Bethlehem. With her last breath she named her newborn son Ben-oni. His father called him Benjamin instead.

Genesis 35:18 carries both names in a single verse, one from each parent. Rachel's did not survive her. Jacob's is the one still in use.

CHAPTER 01

A meaning still unsettled

The translators will not choose between the readings. The Jewish Publication Society glosses Benjamin as son of the right hand, or son of the south. It offers the same double for Ben-oni: son of my suffering, or strength.

Behind the Name traces both halves to the Hebrew roots ben, meaning son, and yamin, which carries right hand and south at once. The same entry makes Benjamin the founder of one of the southern tribes of the Hebrews.

CHAPTER 02

How the name got a date

A name lands on a calendar because a saint did. Behind the Name puts the mechanism plainly: the pairings arose because the church held a festival for a saint of that name on that day. Benjamin's saint was a deacon in Persia, martyred in 424.

His feast falls on March 31. No other date carries Benjamin's name day in as many countries.

CHAPTER 03

Late to English, then up the American list

Benjamin came into general English use only after the Protestant Reformation. It arrived in the first American name list already common, then slid for eight decades before it turned.

CHAPTER 04

The day itself

The day is younger and much harder to trace. Its trail runs into holiday listing sites and stops there. That is a thin record for an observance, and an unusually thick one for the name underneath it.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A deacon dies in Persia

St Benjamin was martyred in Persia, and the church keeps his feast on March 31.

Benjamin Franklin is born

Behind the Name lists Benjamin Franklin as a famous bearer of the name; he lived until 1790.

First American name list

The opening year of federal records put Benjamin 32nd among 1,058 boys' names.

Franklin reaches the hundred

The $100 note issued from this year carried a portrait of Benjamin Franklin on its front.

The name's widest reach

Benjamin took its largest recorded share of listed American boys, 0.80 percent of them.

A three-year run at sixth ends

Benjamin held sixth place from 2016 through this year, the best rank in its American record.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Benjamin Day

TRADITION

For centuries the name day outranked the birthday entirely.

Britannica describes how, in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, a Christian generally received the name of the saint on whose holiday he was baptized. That name day counted as the day of rebirth and mattered more than the natural birthday.

CIRCULATION

The greeting travels, the date slips

Yorkshire Live, a regional newsroom in northern England, published a National Benjamin Day greeting: "So for all the Benjamins, Bens and Bennys this day is all about YOU!" It went out on March 31, the saint's feast, rather than on June 7, so it shows the greeting circulating and one newsroom placing it on the older date.

DIVERGENCE

The name is not rising everywhere

The Office for National Statistics put Benjamin 61st in England and Wales in 2025, with 808 boys, and records it down 32 places since 2015. Over the same decade the American list moved it a single place, from tenth to eleventh.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Benjamin Day by the Numbers

826,830
US boys named Benjamin since 1880
146 of 146
US annual name lists with Benjamin
20
Benjamin's biggest one-year rank gain
2,249
US boys named Benjamin in 1960

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Benjamin Franklin's fame is what pushed the name up the American charts.

The truth

Tested at both Franklin anniversaries against eight control names matched on rank beforehand, the name shows no Franklin effect. It lost ground around the 1906 bicentenary of his birth while the controls gained a median of two and a half places, and its movement around the 2006 tercentenary sits well inside a control spread running from minus 41 to plus 11.

The myth

The name was at its most popular when it reached sixth place in 2016.

The truth

More American boys were named Benjamin in 1989, 15,733 of them, and they were a slightly larger share of that year's listed boys than in 2016. The rank rose because the top of the list flattened: the year's number one boys' name fell from 4.03 percent of listed boys in 1960 to 1.01 percent in 2016.

The myth

June 7 is Benjamin's name day.

The truth

Behind the Name lists name days for nineteen countries on June 7 and Benjamin is in none of them. Robert, or a local spelling of it, holds the date in eleven.

GOOD TO KNOW

National Benjamin Day Around the World

Spain

marks the name on March 31, the date it shares with Austria, Croatia, France and Slovakia

Austria

keeps two dates for it, March 31 and December 19

Denmark and Norway

both put the name day at the end of August, on the 30th

Sweden

stands alone on December 28, latest of them all

Finland

marks it on December 20, its own date in the same month

Hungary

comes earliest in the year, on January 3, for the form Benjamin

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Benjamin Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Read the verse where the name is decided

Open Genesis 35:18 and read the Hebrew beside the English. The translators' notes on Ben-oni and Benjamin do the arguing for you.

LOOK

Look the name up in the federal lists

The Social Security Administration publishes a count for every year back to 1880. Any Benjamin can find the exact number of boys who shared the name in their birth year.

MARK

Mark the older date as well

Parts of Europe keep Benjamin's name day in March rather than in June. A family with roots there has two dates to pick from, and the older one comes with a saint.

COOK

Cook for the Benjamin you know best

Name days across Europe have long been kept at a table rather than at an event. Dinner is the version of this that needs no organising at all.

SEND

Send it on to the Benjamins you know

The record shows this day moving person to person on social platforms. A message on June 7 is exactly how that works.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Benjamin Day?

1 / 8

In Genesis, who gave the child the name Benjamin?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no statute, proclamation or government designation behind it, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

11sources
5primary records
3independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2025
National data on the popularity of baby names, 1880 to 2025
Yearly counts of every US baby name given to five or more children.
View source
Office for National Statistics2026-07
Baby names for boys in England and Wales, 2025
The official top 100 boys' names for England and Wales, with counts and rank changes.
View source
Sefaria
Genesis 35:18, Hebrew text with the JPS translation
The verse where Rachel and Jacob give the newborn two different names.
View source
U.S. Currency Education Program
$100 Note Issued 1914 to 1990
The government's design sheet for the $100 note that first carried Franklin's portrait.
View source
Yorkshire Live2026-03
It's National Benjamin day
A regional British newsroom's Benjamin Day greeting, published on March 31.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Benjamin
The Hebrew roots behind the name and its arrival in English after the Reformation.
View source
Behind the Name
Name Days for the name Benjamin
Every country and date on which Benjamin's traditional name day falls.
View source
Behind the Name
June 7 Name Days
The full nineteen-country roster of names attached to June 7.
View source
Behind the Name
Name Days
How names came to be tied to calendar dates through saints' festivals.
View source
Catholic Online
St. Benjamin
The deacon martyred in Persia in 424 whose feast day is March 31.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Christianity: The saintly life
How Christians were named for saints, and why the name day outranked the birthday.
View source
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