Who created National Christine Day?

The day circulates as a name day and is marked in practice, including by an Illinois nonprofit in 2024, but no founder or founding year has been identified. Federal and congressional records were searched for the exact name and came back empty.

Is National Christine Day the same as National Christina Day?

No. Christine's day is February 14 and National Christina Day falls on May 9, though posts marking the May date often sweep Christines in as well.

What does the name Christine mean?

Christine is the French form of Christina. Christina in turn comes from the Latin Christiana, the feminine of Christianus.

National Christine Day

Next celebratedSunday, February 14, 2027

Christine de Pizan was widowed young and wrote ten volumes in verse to keep three young children fed. February 14 hands her name to everyone carrying it now.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

--DAYS

--HRS

--MIN

--SEC

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

YEARLY DATEFebruary 14

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Observance is the only record it left.

No founder, founding year, or establishing record for National Christine Day has been identified. Exact-name searches of the Federal Register and Congress.gov return nothing.

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

INTRO

Christine held a place in America's top 200 for twelve decades

National Christine Day sits on top of an unusually complete paper trail. Christine appears in the Social Security Administration's top 200 American girls' names in every decade from the 1880s to the 1990s. Then it stops, and it has not come back.

That is twelve consecutive decades, the entire published series up to the point it drops out. A separate count, covering the last hundred years of American births, puts Christine 43rd among girls' names. The older Latin spelling, Christina, sits at 57th.

The name reached those tables from French. On the French side of the record sit an author at the medieval court, a book made for a queen, and a law that told parents which names they were permitted to use.

ORIGINS

Christine Day history

INTRODUCTION

Christine begins in Latin. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces Christina to Christiana, the feminine form of Christianus. French speakers reshaped it into Christine, and the French version did not stay in France.

CHAPTER 01

A widow at the French court

Christine de Pizan was born in Venice in 1364. Her father became astrologer to Charles V of France, and she grew up at the French court. She married at fifteen.

Her husband died ten years later. She took up writing to support herself and her three young children, and produced ten volumes in verse.

The British Library still holds the result. Harley MS 4431 gathers her collected works for Isabeau of Bavaria, queen consort of Charles VI, with miniatures attributed to an illuminator known only as the Master of the Cite des Dames. The catalogue notes that some passages may be in the author's own hand.

CHAPTER 02

France ruled on which names were allowed

In 1803 France adopted a law telling parents which given names were permissible. Article 1 admitted only names found on different calendars and those of people renowned in ancient history. Registrars were forbidden to write anything else.

Known as the law of 11 germinal an XI, it governed French naming for generations. It stood as the only such rule until January 1993, when a new statute replaced it.

CHAPTER 03

Where the day itself came from

The observance leaves a far thinner trail than the name does. An exact-name search of the Federal Register returns zero documents, and Congress.gov returns none either.

No founder, no founding year, and no establishing document has surfaced behind the day.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Christine Day

WORKPLACE

A listed holiday and an observed one are different things.

In February 2024 the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence marked the day by name and used it to introduce its director of policy and systems advocacy, Christine Raffaele. That post is the clearest evidence the observance is used rather than merely listed.

OVERLAP

Two different days lay claim to Christines

The observance shares February 14 with Valentine's Day. A separate National Christina Day in May sweeps Christines in as well, so the same people end up claimed by two observances.

FRANCE

A French fashion built a companion name

Insee's figures for girls born in Hauts-de-France during the postwar baby boom put Christine 13th in the region. The compound Marie-Christine ranked 29th, part of a double-name fashion Insee dates to the same generation.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Christine Day by the Numbers

549,791: US girls named Christine since 1926
22nd: Christine's best US decade rank, 1970s
139,343: Christines born in the 1960s, the peak decade
1973: Year Christina overtook Christine in the US

GOOD TO KNOW

Christines the record remembers

Christine Daae

Gaston Leroux gave his heroine the French form of the name in The Phantom of the Opera, published in 1910.

Christine Jorgensen

She chose the name herself after Christian Hamburger, the doctor who treated her in Copenhagen, and stepped off a plane in New York in 1952.

Christine McVie

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted her with Fleetwood Mac in 1998, and notes that her song Don't Stop later ran in a presidential campaign.

Christine Lagarde

Born in Paris, she led the International Monetary Fund until 2019, then became president of the European Central Bank that November.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Christine Day

Look up a Christine in the name tables

The Social Security Administration publishes its decade by decade name tables in full. Find the decade a Christine you know was born in and see where the name stood.

READ

Read the book a medieval Christine wrote

Christine de Pizan finished Le Livre de la cite des dames in 1405. The British Library's catalogue entry describes the manuscript of her collected works.

COMPARE

Compare the spellings across languages

Christine is in use well beyond French, including in German, Danish and Dutch. A name database entry sets those usages side by side.

WRITE

Write a card that is not a valentine

February 14 already has an occasion attached to it. A note addressed to a Christine gives the date a second job.

PLAY

Play the Fleetwood Mac songs a Christine wrote

Christine McVie wrote and sang with the band for decades. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's inductee page is a reasonable place to start.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Christine Day?

1 / 7

Christine is the form of Christina that originated in which language?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no federal or state recognition located, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

18sources

12primary records

8independently dated

Primary records

U.S. Social Security Administration2026-03

Top Names Over the Last 100 Years

The 100 most common American given names for births from 1926 to 2025.