Holiday Calendar

National Connor Day

Next celebratedThursday, April 1, 2027

Behind Connor is Conchobar, an Old Irish king's name built from the words for hound and for desiring. April 1 hands the day to every Connor, Conor and Conner, and the first writer to mark it opened by swearing it was not a prank.

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

Community Origin

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

Passed hand to hand, never written down.

National Connor Day circulates on holiday-listing sites and among people who carry the name, and a Hudson Valley radio host who spells it Conor wrote it up in 2024. Who first put it on April 1, and in what year, has never been written down.

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

When the Irish spelling stopped leading America

For ten years running, American parents put Conor on more birth records than Connor. That is the Irish spelling, the one with a single n. The run started in 1976.

It broke in 1986. The two-n spelling pulled ahead that year and has finished ahead every year since. These counts follow one spelling at a time in the Social Security Administration's national baby-name data, 1880-2025.

National Connor Day lands on April 1, which gives it an awkward neighbour. The radio host who wrote it up spent his opening paragraph swearing it was not a prank. Who first put it on the calendar has never been written down.

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ORIGINS

Connor Day history

CHAPTER 01

A king named for a hunting dog

The name starts in Old Irish, as Conchobar. It joins cú, meaning "hound, dog, wolf," to cobar, "desiring." It has been in use in Ireland for centuries.

Its best-known bearer is Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster. He sits at the centre of the Ulster cycle, a body of Irish legend set in the first century BC. Britannica calls him semi-historical.

The cycle's longest tale is The Cattle Raid of Cooley, which Britannica calls its "closest approach to an epic." The stories were carried orally for centuries before anyone wrote them down. They survive in manuscripts copied in the twelfth century.

CHAPTER 02

The long way round through a surname

Conor is the Anglicized form of Conchobar. From the given name came the family name, Ó Conchobhair, which English writes as O'Connor. The surname Connor is a variant of that one.

Then the traffic reversed. Parents started using the surname's spelling as a first name again. Behind the Name files Connor as a variant of Conor, "based on the usual spelling of the surname that is derived from the name."

So the two-n spelling most Americans use is not a misspelling of the Irish one. It is the surname coming home.

CHAPTER 03

A day that arrived without paperwork

The day itself has a far shorter history, and most of it is missing. It circulates on holiday-listing sites and among people who carry the name. Who chose April 1 for it, and when, has never been written down.

What the record does hold is one piece of coverage. A Hudson Valley radio host who spells his own name Conor wrote the day up in 2024, and opened with a denial that it was a joke.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A king at Emain Macha

The Ulster cycle is set in the reign of Conchobar mac Nessa, whom Britannica calls semi-historical and places at a court near modern Armagh.

The Book of the Dun Cow

The manuscript is compiled. Britannica names it and The Book of Leinster as the twelfth-century books that preserve the Ulster cycle.

Ireland's last high king dies

Roderic O'Connor, king of Connaught and the last high king of Ireland, dies near Lough Corrib in County Galway.

Connor enters the American record

Seven boys are recorded as Connor, the first year the spelling appears in the Social Security Administration's national file.

Ireland's most popular boys' name

The Central Statistics Office records Conor first with 761 registrations. Its 1999 table shows Conor at 761 again and Sean at 760.

The American peak

10,049 boys are recorded as Connor, the largest year the spelling has ever had. The count has fallen in most years since.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Connor Day

Spelling

Most name days settle on one spelling. This one takes all of them.

Most name days settle on one form and quietly leave the rest out. This one does not. The write-up that covers it names Conor, Connor and Conner, throws in Khanner for good measure, and tells all of them the day is theirs.

Scale

A very large constituency

Counting the two-n spelling alone, 234,546 American boys have been recorded with the name since 1880. Those are counts of one registry string over a century and a half, not an estimate, and they make the day one of the better-populated name days on the calendar.

Split

Two islands, two spellings

Behind the Name records that Connor is now the most common way of spelling it in the English-speaking world, apart from Ireland. Ireland kept Conor. A day that covers both is a day that travels across that split rather than picking a side.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Connor Day

Ulster warriors made trophies from their enemies' brains

The medieval death-tale of Conchobar records the custom: the men of Ulster took the brains out of every warrior they killed in single combat, mixed them with lime, and rolled them into hard balls. The Connacht warrior Cet mac Mágach stole one and carried it in his girdle into every battle, waiting for a chance to use it.

A king's skull was stitched shut with gold thread

Cet slung the ball into Conchobar's head. His physician said removing it would kill him, so the wound was sewn up instead, with thread of gold chosen because it matched the colour of the king's hair. He lived seven more years under orders not to run, not to ride, and not to lose his temper.

1,716 American girls have been named Connor

Girls with the name first show up in the national file in 1980, six of them. Their numbers peaked in 1992, twelve years before the boys' count peaked, so the two curves do not even rise and fall together.

Britannica files the legendary king under the modern-looking form

Look up the Ulster king in Encyclopaedia Britannica and the entry is titled Conor, with Conchobar mac Nessa listed underneath as the alternative name.

From 84 boys in a decade to 85,985 in another

The spelling Connor was given to 84 American boys across the whole of the 1960s. In the 2000s it was given to 85,985. That is more than a thousand times as many, and the whole climb happened inside four decades.

I know this sounds like an April Fools prank, but I am telling you, this is 100% real!
Conor WalshRadio host in New York's Hudson Valley, writing about his own name day

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Connor Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Call a Connor and wish them well

The simplest version of the day, and the one suggestion that costs nothing. Pick the Connor you have not spoken to in a while.

GIVE

Give a Connor a gift

Nothing in particular is prescribed, so the choice is entirely yours. There are no customs here to get wrong.

THROW

Throw a Connor themed party

Invite every spelling. The name covers Conor, Connor and Conner, and the day was written up as covering all of them.

RUN

Run a marathon of Connors on screen

The radio host who covered the day suggested Connor Walsh from How to Get Away with Murder and Conner Kent, better known as Superboy, from Young Justice.

READ

Read the king the name came from

Kuno Meyer's 1906 translation of the Ulster death-tales, hosted by University College Cork, carries the story of Conchobar's brain-ball wound in full.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Connor Day?

1 / 8

What two Old Irish words make up the name Conchobar?

Answer

No. It has no legal standing, and no government proclamation for a Connor Day could be located. It is an unofficial observance and not a day off.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

10sources
4primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security AdministrationTabulated as of March 1, 2026
National baby names data (names.zip, yob1880 to yob2025), via the Internet Archive
Per-year counts by name and sex for U.S. births with a Social Security Number. Source for every American figure on this page, including the 1976 to 1985 Conor lead, the 1986 reversal, the 1913 first appearance, the 2004 peak of 10,049, the 234,546 cumulative total, the 1,716 girls, and the 1960s and 2000s decade sums.
View source
Central Statistics Office, Ireland28 July 1999
Irish Babies' Names 1998 (Ref 160/1999)
Official release recording Conor as the most popular boys' name registered in Ireland in 1998, with 761 registrations ahead of Sean, Jack, James and Adam.
View source
Central Statistics Office, Ireland21 June 2000
Irish Babies' Names 1999 (Ref 105/2000)
Official release whose table records Conor at 761 registrations and Sean at 760 for 1999.
View source
CELT, University College Cork1906 edition, Royal Irish Academy
The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes, translated by Kuno Meyer
Scholarly edition and translation of the medieval tale of Conchobar's death. Source for the lime-hardened brain-ball custom, Cet mac Mágach's theft of Mesgegra's brain, the gold-thread stitching, and the seven restricted years.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Conchobar
Derivation from Old Irish cú, hound, dog or wolf, and cobar, desiring, with the Ulster king as its best-known bearer.
View source
Behind the Name
Connor
Files Connor as a variant of Conor based on the usual spelling of the surname derived from the name, and notes it is now the most common spelling in the English-speaking world apart from Ireland.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Ulster cycle
Dates the cycle's setting to the 1st century BC, its manuscripts to the 12th century, and names The Cattle Raid of Cooley its closest approach to an epic.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Conor, legendary Irish king
Britannica's headword entry for Conchobar mac Nessa.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Roderic O'Connor
King of Connaught and the last high king of Ireland, who died in 1198 near Lough Corrib.
View source
WRRV 92.7/96.92024
April 1st is the Day to Celebrate the Best Name in Existence
Write-up of the day by a radio host who carries the name. Source for the celebration suggestions and the quoted insistence that the day is not a prank. Evidence that the day circulates, not independent confirmation that it exists.
View source
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