Holiday Calendar

National Bobby Day

Next celebratedThursday, September 17, 2026

Bobbys share a name with the British bobby: the word for a police officer is a pet form of Robert, after the Home Secretary Robert Peel. The day lands on Robert's name day in four European calendars.

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Last updated September 3, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATESeptember 17
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

The trail runs cold in August 2022.

No founder, establishing act, or first observance has been documented for National Bobby Day. What survives instead is an archived listing page captured in August 2022, which dates the listing and not the day.

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

The earliest bobby on record sits in an 1844 burglary trial

The oldest "bobby" the dictionaries can point to was said by a policeman who could not swear he had heard it.

National Bobby Day belongs to the Bobbys, and to the Bobbies and Bobbis who sound exactly like them. Their name also became an ordinary English word for a job.

The example sits in the Old Bailey proceedings for the session that opened on 10 June 1844. A constable, cross-examined about a signal a lookout had given in the dark, thought she had said "a crush" or "a bobby", then conceded he could not be certain of either.

The printer set both words in italics, the way a compositor marks slang he does not expect the reader to know.

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ORIGINS

Bobby Day history

INTRODUCTION

Robert did not begin as an English name. It comes from the Germanic Hrodebert, built from hruod, meaning fame, and beraht, meaning bright.

The Normans introduced it to Britain. England already had its own version, Hreodbeorht, but it was rare, and the incoming spelling replaced it. Bobby is one of the pet forms English later grew from it, alongside Bob, Rob, Robbie and Robin.

CHAPTER 01

The Home Secretary who lent out his name

Robert Peel became Home Secretary and set about the policing of London. His bill reached the statute book as 1829 c. 44, under the plain long title "An Act for improving the Police in and near the Metropolis".

The Act does not hide its reasoning. Its preamble states that offences against property "have of late increased in and near the Metropolis", and that the old parish arrangements of nightly watch had proved "inadequate to the Prevention and Detection of Crime".

The force took its nickname from the man who made it. He supplied two of them.

CHAPTER 02

Peeler came first, and lost

The surname got there first. As early as 1816 a member of the Commons was grumbling about the Irish police that were called, in compliment to Peel, "the peelers".

The first name followed. Newspapers were already calling him Bobby Peel by 1829, when a Drogheda paper printed a comic alphabet whose P was "Bobby Peel, the police politician". Both nicknames transferred to his constables.

Only one of them lasted. Peeler faded out of ordinary speech, while bobby stayed, and the dictionaries still carry it.

CHAPTER 03

A day with no author

The observance itself has no such paper trail. No founder, no first celebration, no establishing announcement.

What can be dated is thinner. Only one listing registry could be checked against the Internet Archive with any confidence, and its earliest surviving page for the day dates to August 2022. That sets a floor for when the day was circulating, not a year anyone founded it.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The peelers get their name

A member of the House of Commons complains of the Irish police force that people called, in compliment to Robert Peel, 'the peelers'.

An Act for improving the Police

Peel's Metropolitan Police Act passes as 1829 c. 44, blaming a rise in offences against property and an inadequate night watch.

Bobby reaches the record

The word appears in the Old Bailey Proceedings, italicised, in the cross-examination of a police constable.

Bobbie reaches US girls

The spelling Bobbie clears the reporting threshold on the United States girls' list.

Seven boys named Bobby

Bobby appears in the US birth data for the first time, then drops back below the threshold the following year.

The biggest year

US parents register 7,745 boys as Bobby, the most in any year of the series.
I could not understand whether it was "a crush" or "a bobby". I cannot swear that I heard any words of that kind. I heard her say something. It was a signal to let them know a policeman was coming.
Benjamin ParsonsPolice constable M 107, under cross-examination at the Old Bailey, 1844

BY THE NUMBERS

National Bobby Day by the Numbers

50 yrs
Bobby inside the US top 100
#23
Bobby's best US rank, 1934
97.0%
US Bobbys who were boys
82.8%
US Bobbies who were girls

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Bobby Day

LANGUAGE

Three words are the entire dictionary definition.

A pet form of Robert crossed into English as the ordinary word for an occupation. Merriam-Webster still carries the noun, and its whole definition runs to three words: "British : police officer".

SPELLING

Three spellings that sort by sex

Bobby, Bobbie and Bobbi sound identical when spoken aloud, yet US parents have used them to mean different things on paper. Which spelling went on the form tracked whether the child was a boy or a girl.

RECORD

Three public records under one nickname

The name behind this day rests on three kinds of public document: an Act of Parliament, a criminal trial transcript, and 146 years of national birth data. Each is a record anyone can open and check for themselves.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Bobby Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Ask which name is on the certificate

Bobby is a pet form of Robert, but it also appears in the US birth data as a registered first name in its own right. Asking settles which of the two you are talking to.

READ

Read the 1844 trial for yourself

The session that carries the earliest bobby is public, and you can open the proceedings at Old Bailey Online. Four people were tried in that case, and all four were convicted.

OPEN

Open the Act that started it

The law behind the nickname is online as the original King's Printer scan at legislation.gov.uk. Its preamble reads like a complaint letter, which is roughly what it was.

WORK

Work out which spelling runs in your family

Bobby, Bobbie and Bobbi are the same name until somebody writes it down. Old letters, forms and school records are where the spelling shows up.

MARK

Mark it the way a name day is marked

Several national calendars set aside 17 September for Roberts. A short message to the Bobbys and Roberts you know fits the date better than a present does.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Bobby Day?

1 / 8

Whose name gave British English the word bobby for a police officer?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing on record, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

10sources
3primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
Old Bailey Proceedings Online1844
Sessions Papers, 10 June 1844 (t18440610)
The 1844 burglary trial whose transcript carries the earliest recorded bobby.
View source
legislation.gov.uk1829
The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 (1829 c. 44)
Peel's Act in the original King's Printer text, preamble and long title included.
View source
US Social Security Administration1880-2025
Popular Baby Names: Beyond the Top 1000 Names
National birth-name files from 1880 on, and the rule hiding names under five births.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Name Days: September 17
Which names each national calendar marks on 17 September, Robert among them.
View source
Behind the Name
Robert
The Germanic roots of Robert, its Norman arrival in Britain, and its English pet forms.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
bobby (n.)
Dates the police sense of bobby to 1844 and ties it to Robert Peel.
View source
word histories2018
origin of 'bobby' and 'peeler' (police officer)
Archival trail for both nicknames, quoting the 1816 Commons debate and an 1829 newspaper.
View source
Merriam-Webster2026
bobby (noun)
The current dictionary entry, defining the noun as British for police officer.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
St. Robert Bellarmine
The cardinal who died on 17 September 1621, and whose feast falls on that date.
View source
Texas State Historical Association
Byrd, Robert James, Sr. (Bobby Day)
The singer who used the name Bobby Day, and the records behind Rockin' Robin.
View source
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