Holiday Calendar

National Cameron Day

Next celebratedMonday, February 1, 2027

Nothing happened at Glenfinnan in 1745 until the pipes came over the hill: the first clansmen to appear were following Cameron of Lochiel, with 600 men behind him. February 1 marks a name meaning crooked nose, or crooked hill.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEFebruary 1
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

The listings that carry it disagree on the date.

National Cameron Day is carried on holiday listings that do not agree on its date, with February 1 the version on this record. No founder, organisation or establishing record has been identified, and no source states why the day falls when it does.

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

Britain kept Cameron a boys' name and America did not

Across the birth years 2016-2025, about one in ten American babies given the name Cameron was a girl. In Scotland, where the name began, the same measure runs between one in forty and one in fifty. National Cameron Day sits on a name that Scotland and the United States do not use the same way.

The American figures are 6,126 girls against 52,825 boys, counting only that exact spelling. Scotland's own register counts 1,415 boys over the same decade, and fewer than forty girls.

The two British registries agree with each other here and disagree with the American one. England and Wales recorded eleven girls named Cameron across the two years to 2025. Whatever happened to Cameron in the United States did not happen in Scotland.

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ORIGINS

Cameron Day history

INTRODUCTION

Nobody is certain what Cameron means. The name reaches English from Scottish Gaelic, and two different Gaelic phrases have a claim on it. Both start from the same word for crooked.

Start with the Highland reading. Behind the Name traces the given name to a surname meaning crooked nose, from cam for crooked and sron for nose, citing George Fraser Black's survey The Surnames of Scotland.

CHAPTER 01

A nose, or a hill

The Online Etymology Dictionary keeps the crooked-nose gloss for the Highland clan, then adds a second line: the Lowland name is for a locality in Fife. Clan Cameron's own site gives the same split. It offers Camshron for the Highland name and a Fife alternative it writes Cambrun, cam plus brun, crooked hill.

CHAPTER 02

The name at Glenfinnan

On 19 August 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart waited at Glenfinnan with about two hundred men of his own. The clans he had been promised were not there. Nothing happened until the pipes came over the hill in the afternoon.

The National Trust for Scotland says the first line of clansmen to appear was following Cameron of Lochiel, who had brought 600 or more men. That chief was Donald Cameron, remembered as the Gentle Lochiel and the nineteenth of his line. The rising ended the following April at Culloden, where the Trust records 1,500 Jacobite dead.

CHAPTER 03

A day with no author

The observance is thinner than any of that. Nothing in the record names who put it on the calendar, or when, or why February. The name has a documented past; the day marking it does not.

The listings themselves cannot even agree on when it falls. Most run it on February 1. At least one runs it on 23 October.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The Camerons at Glenfinnan

Cameron of Lochiel led the first line of clansmen to reach Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Glenfinnan on 19 August.

Achnacarry rebuilt for the chiefs

The present Achnacarry Castle, seat of the Cameron chiefs, was designed by the architect James Gillespie Graham.

Commandos take over Achnacarry

The estate became the Commandos' wartime training ground, and some 25,000 men passed through it by 1945.

Scotland's published list opens

The first year of the National Records of Scotland full list shows 58 boys named Cameron, at rank 85.

Scotland's peak year for the name

699 Scottish boys were named Cameron, the highest single-year count in the register's published run.

Cameron's best American showing

The name reached number 31 on the Social Security Administration's boys' list, on 12,767 births.

GOOD TO KNOW

National Cameron Day Around the World

United States

4,348 boys and 614 girls were named Cameron in 2025, and the name has held a place in the Social Security Administration's top 100 for boys every year since 1987.

Scotland

Cameron was a top five boys' name for eight consecutive years, 1998 to 2005, reaching number three in 2001. In 2025 the register counted 92 boys and 8 girls.

England and Wales

The Office for National Statistics ranked Cameron 216th among boys in both 2024 and 2025, on 228 births and then 231. The same list runs to 5,137 ranks, so 216th is a common name there, just not a leading one.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Cameron Day

EVIDENCE

Britain publishes every name given to three or more babies.

Britain's two birth registries publish every name given to three or more babies, and the American one publishes every name given to five or more. A claim about Cameron can therefore be tested rather than repeated.

SPELLING

Every register counts the spellings separately

All three registries say in their own notes that variant spellings are recorded as separate names. A figure that quietly merges them describes a name no register actually holds.

ENDURANCE

Older in America than its peak suggests

Cameron is far older in American records than its peak years suggest. Social Security files record 312,661 American boys given the name in all, and an unbroken run of years since 1905.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Cameron Day

Cameron has never been a top 100 girls' name

Its best showing in Social Security data is 176th, in 1999. No year from 1880 to 2025 puts it inside the top 100 for American girls.

Camryn outnumbered Cameron at the girls' peak

In 1999, 2,048 American girls were named Camryn against 1,781 named Cameron. The two spellings peaked in the same year.

The girls' share in 1999 matched 1970

Girls were 12.50 percent of American babies named Cameron in 1970 and 12.53 percent in 1999. In between the share fell to 4.56 percent, because the boys' count grew faster.

Boys reach the data long before girls

Cameron first appears in Social Security files in 1882, with six boys. The first year it appears for girls is 1914, with five.

Kameron is the boys' spelling

Kameron peaked at 1,506 boys in 2015. It stood at 663 boys in 2025.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Cameron Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up the name in Scotland's own register

The National Records of Scotland publishes its full list of forenames back to 1974. Find your birth year and see how many others shared it.

SETTLE

Settle which meaning you believe

One reading makes Cameron a crooked nose in Gaelic and the other a crooked hill in Fife. Read the clan's own account of both, then pick the one you will repeat at dinner.

WALK

Walk the ground at Glenfinnan

The monument at Glenfinnan marks where Lochiel's men arrived in 1745. The Trust's account of that afternoon is worth reading before you go.

READ

Read what the war made of the chiefs' seat

Achnacarry, the seat of the Cameron chiefs, spent the Second World War as a Commandos training ground. The estate keeps its own account of who passed through it.

ASK

Ask a Cameron how they got the name

A register can tell you how many others shared your birth year. It cannot tell you why your parents chose it.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Cameron Day?

1 / 8

In Scottish Gaelic, what does the element cam in Cameron mean?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found in the government records checked, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

11sources
8primary records
6independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration2025
Beyond the Top 1000 Names (national data)
Year-by-year American birth-name files, every name given to five or more babies.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration
Popular Names in the 1960s
The published decade table that shows how the agency numbers tied names.
View source
National Records of Scotland2026-05
Babies' First Names, 2025
Every forename registered in Scotland from 1974 to 2025, with counts and ranks.
View source
Office for National Statistics2026-07
Baby names for boys in England and Wales
The full England and Wales boys' list, down to names given three times.
View source
Office for National Statistics2026-07
Baby names for girls in England and Wales
The matching girls' list, and the note on how spellings are counted.
View source
National Trust for Scotland
Glenfinnan Monument: 1745 Rising
The site custodian's account of the afternoon the clans arrived at Glenfinnan.
View source
Achnacarry Estate
History of the Achnacarry Estate
The seat of the Cameron chiefs on its own chiefs, castle and wartime commandos.
View source
Clan Cameron
What Does Cameron Mean?
The clan's own two candidate meanings, crooked nose and crooked hill.
View source
Additional coverage
Online Etymology Dictionary
Cameron
Separates the Highland clan name from the Lowland name for a Fife locality.
View source
Behind the Name2026-05
Cameron (given name)
The given name's derivation, and a hedged note on its 1990s use for girls.
View source
Behind the Name2026-05
Cameron (surname)
The surname entry, citing George Fraser Black's The Surnames of Scotland.
View source
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