Is Donald's day on March 22 or June 9?

March 22 is National Donald Day, which marks the given name. June 9 is National Donald Duck Day, which marks the Disney character's screen debut in 1934. They are separate observances.

Who started National Donald Day, and why is it on March 22?

The earliest independent listing found dates from March 2023, but no founder, year, or organisation is documented and no source explains the choice of date.

What does the name Donald mean?

It comes from the Scottish Gaelic Dòmhnall, meaning ruler of the world, from the Old Irish elements domun, world, and fal, rule.

National Donald Day

Next celebratedMonday, March 22, 2027

From 1923 to 1942, Donald ranked among the ten most common names given to American boys every year. It has since fallen to 690th, and March 22 is the date set aside for the name.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated August 29, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMarch 22

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

“The name has continuous records going back to 1880. The day marking it has none.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A name with deep records, and a day with none.

No founder, establishment year, proclamation, or sponsoring organisation has been identified for National Donald Day. The earliest independent listing located dates from March 2023, and no source accounts for the choice of March 22.

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INTRO

What happened to the sixth most popular boys' name of 1934

The name behind National Donald Day was once near the top of the American charts. Donald reached sixth place among boys' names in 1934. The nine others in that year's top ten were Robert, James, John, William, Richard, Charles, George, Thomas and Joseph.

The most recent year of data still puts all nine inside the top 250. Donald is not there. It sits at 690th, the lowest rank the name has held in the whole federal series.

Donald did not arrive in America as an American name. It came from Scotland, and the charts only picked it up once it was already centuries old.

ORIGINS

Donald Day history

INTRODUCTION

Donald is a Scottish name that travelled. It comes from the Scottish Gaelic Dòmhnall, glossed as ruler of the world. The parts are Old Irish: domun, world, and fal, rule.

Two ninth-century kings of the Scots and Picts carried it. The name was well established in Scotland long before anyone thought to give it a date on a calendar.

CHAPTER 01

The saint who did not make it popular

There is a Saint Donald, and his feast falls on July 15. St Donald of Ogilvy lived in Forfarshire in the 700s, and after his wife died he and his nine daughters lived together as a religious community.

Wells and hills across Scotland still carry the name Nine Maidens in their memory. Catholic Online is blunt about the saint's influence on the name, saying its popularity in Scotland must be attributed "not to veneration for the saint, but to the ubiquity of the sons of Somerled of the Isles, clan Donald".

CHAPTER 02

A mid-century American name

The name crossed to the United States and climbed steadily through the early 1900s. By 1930 it was the seventh most common name given to American boys, and it stayed in that neighbourhood for the rest of the decade.

Then it turned. Donald left the top hundred in 1991, and it has not been back in any year since.

CHAPTER 03

A day with no author

The observance itself has nothing like that paper trail. No founder, year, or organisation can be traced for the day, and nothing found explains why it lands on March 22.

What exists is a scatter of calendar listings. The earliest located here went up in March 2023, and it names nobody. Search for it and most of what comes back belongs to a different June observance, the one for the Disney cartoon.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Into the American top ten

Donald reached tenth place among American boys' names for the first time, with 16,433 births that year.

The peak year

American parents gave the name to 30,408 boys, its highest count anywhere in the federal records.

Its last year in the top ten

Donald held tenth place for the final time before beginning a long descent.

Scotland starts publishing

The first year of Scotland's baby-name records lists 146 boys named Donald, which the registry places at rank 54 on its own list.

Out of the top hundred

Donald slipped to 102nd among American boys' names and never returned to the top hundred.

The thinnest year on record

Only 395 American boys received the name, fewer than in any year since 1915.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Donald Day by the Numbers

1,414,824: US boys named Donald, 1880-2025
2.94%: Peak share of US boys given the name, 1934
20: Years running in the US boys' top 10, 1923-1942
2,500: Scottish boys named Donald, 1974-2025
146 of 146: US years listing Donald among boys, 1880-2025

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Donald Day

The Gaelic original never made the list

Domhnall, the Scottish Gaelic form that Donald comes from, has never once reached the five-birth publication floor in a single American year, across the whole run of national files.

Two registries, two ranks, one set of counts

Scotland's registry placed Donald 400th among boys in 2025. Applying the American rule for ties to those identical Scottish counts puts him 410th instead. Neither is wrong, because the two agencies break ties differently.

The short forms peaked later

Don peaked in 1946 and Donnie in 1952. Each crossed its high point more than a decade after Donald crossed its own.

Its three peaks landed on one year

A name's best birth count, its best share of births, and its best rank usually fall in different years. Among the hundred highest-volume American boys' names, only eight have all three in the same year. Donald is one of the eight.

Thousands of American girls were named Donald

The federal files record 5,563 girls registered as Donald, spread over 88 separate years. The last year the name appeared in the girls' file was 2004.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Donald Day Matters

Evidence

A name's whole life is visible, not just its famous stretch.

The federal name files run from 1880 to the present without a gap, so a name's whole life is visible, not just its famous stretch. Donald's rise and fall can be looked up rather than recalled.

Persistence

Fading is not the same as vanishing

In Scotland the name has never dropped off the published list, even as the yearly count fell into single figures. A name can thin out for half a century without ever leaving the record.

Namesakes

A shared name is a shared record

Everyone who carries the name sits somewhere in the same long series, in one country's files or another's. The date is an occasion to find out where.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Donald Day

Look the name up in the federal files

The Social Security Administration publishes its national name data all the way back to 1880. Find the year you were born and see where the name sat.

COMPARE

Compare the Scottish record

National Records of Scotland publishes its full list of babies' first names, not just a top hundred. Look up how the name has fared there against its American record.

CHECK

Check which spelling you actually mean

Don, Donnie and Donal are counted as separate names in both registries. Search each one on its own, or the numbers you get will describe a different name.

READ

Read the Gaelic entry

Behind the Name sets out Dòmhnall and its Old Irish parts, along with the short forms the name has produced.

ASK

Ask a Donald where the name came from

A grandfather, a saint, a clan, or nothing in particular. Neither registry records why a name was chosen, so the only way to collect a reason is to ask.

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