Holiday Calendar

National Dylan Day

Next celebratedSunday, November 15, 2026

The first Dylan lasted one sentence: baptized, he plunged into the sea, no wave ever broke beneath him, and his uncle killed him. November 15 belongs to the 418,679 American boys who took the name after him.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATENovember 15
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

Kept since 2022, credited to nobody.

No founder, organisation, or establishment record for National Dylan Day has been identified. The earliest dated trace of the name is an archived listing from August 2022, and the first documented observances fall on 15 November 2022.

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INTRO

Almost every American Dylan was born after 1990

The word has been written down in Welsh since the early 1300s. The people who carry it have not been around nearly that long. American birth records hold 418,679 boys named Dylan.

Nearly all of them were born after 1990. The precise figure is 94.4 percent.

That is the strange arithmetic underneath National Dylan Day. A name with centuries of Welsh behind it spent most of the twentieth century almost unused in America, then arrived nearly all at once. The day itself is younger still, and nobody has ever claimed it.

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ORIGINS

Dylan Day history

INTRODUCTION

A woman steps over a magic wand and a boy appears. The magician Math names him on the spot. Then, in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the newborn ruins his own christening.

"As they baptized him he plunged into the sea," runs Lady Charlotte Guest's translation. "Beneath him no wave ever broke." He is killed by his uncle Govannon a sentence later, and that is the whole life of Dylan, son of the Wave.

CHAPTER 01

A Swansea boy named out of the tales

In the summer of 1914 that story reached a London stage. Josef Holbrooke's opera Dylan, Son of the Wave opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was performed three times and never revived.

Later that autumn a boy was born in Swansea. His father had just sat on a committee welcoming the opera's librettist and his new Welsh National Theatre to the town. The Dictionary of Welsh Biography draws the line plainly: hence Dylan, from one of the medieval Welsh tales.

CHAPTER 02

Five boys, then a long quiet

Americans took decades to follow. Dylan Thomas made four reading tours of the United States, and in 1953, the year he died in New York, five American boys were given the name. In 1962, when Bob Dylan released a first album under a name he had chosen for himself, the count fell to nineteen.

CHAPTER 03

The year the ledger changed

Beverly Hills, 90210 opened to poor ratings on Fox. Luke Perry had joined as Dylan McKay in the second episode. The network then ran the show through the summer of 1991 against everyone else's reruns, and viewership climbed sharply.

The birth records turn at the same point. Across 1990-92, Dylan's share of American boys more than tripled. None of the show's other lead names moved anything like as far.

CHAPTER 04

A day nobody signed

National Dylan Day surfaces long after all of this, and it surfaces without an author. The earliest dated trace of the phrase is a listing archived in 2022. The first observances anyone can point to fall on 15 November that same year, and no founder, organisation or establishing document has ever been produced.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Dylan Day

GEOGRAPHY

A Welsh word that sits higher in America's list than England's.

In 2024 Dylan was the 28th most common boys' name in the United States. In England it ranked 71st.

HERITAGE

Wales is loosening its grip

The country the word comes from is using it less than it did. Dylan ranked seventh among Welsh boys in 2010 and thirtieth by 2024.

SPELLING

The Dillons are included

Behind the Name records Dillon and Dillan as English variants of Dylan. A Welsh news page wished a happy one to all the brilliant Dylans, Dyls and Dillons in your life.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Dylan Day by the Numbers

16,497
US boys named Dylan, 2001
#19
Best US boys' rank, 2003 and 2004
16,272
US girls named Dylan since 1880

TIMELINE

Timeline

An opera nobody kept

Josef Holbrooke's Dylan, Son of the Wave opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 4 July, and was performed three times in total.

A poet gets the name

Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in Swansea on 27 October and named out of the medieval Welsh tales.

The name reaches America

Five American boys were recorded as Dylan, the first year it clears the reporting threshold in national birth data.

A borrowed name goes public

Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman, released his debut album, and the number of American boys given the name fell that year to nineteen.

Dylan McKay arrives

Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered on Fox on 4 October, and Luke Perry joined a week later in the second episode.

The first kept Dylan Days

Two unconnected people marked National Dylan Day on 15 November, the earliest observances anyone has dated.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

The day honours the musician Bob Dylan.

The truth

It is a name day, kept for people called Dylan, and nothing outside unsourced holiday listings ties it to him. He was born Robert Zimmerman, so the name is one he picked rather than one he was given.

The myth

Dylan means great tide, or son of the sea.

The truth

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, the University of Wales dictionary that popular entries cite for that reading, defines dylan on its own as sea, ocean, the deep, wave. It offers no two-part derivation.

The myth

Bob Dylan took the name from the poet Dylan Thomas.

The truth

Asked that exact question by Playboy in 1978, he answered: No. I haven't read that much of Dylan Thomas. His accounts have differed across the decades and none of them is settled.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Dylan Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Say it to the Dylan you know

A message on 15 November is how this day actually travels from one person to the next. It takes a sentence.

READ

Read the passage the name comes from

The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi gives Dylan one short paragraph before killing him off. It is free to read in Lady Charlotte Guest's translation.

LOOK

Look the word up in Welsh

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru is the standard historical dictionary of the language and is readable online. Its entry for dylan carries quotations from the fourteenth century onward.

LOOK

Look up your own year in the birth data

The Social Security Administration publishes a count for every name in every year back to 1880. Any Dylan can find out how many others shared the year.

KEEP

Keep 14 May separate

International Dylan Thomas Day is a different observance for the poet, run by Literature Wales. Save the readings and the Under Milk Wood evenings for that date.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Dylan Day?

1 / 8

In which year does the name Dylan first appear in United States birth records?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing, so 15 November is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

11sources
7primary records
7independently dated
Primary records
US Social Security Administration2025
Popular Baby Names: National Data
Counts for every US baby name in every year from 1880 onward.
View source
Office for National Statistics2024
Baby names in England and Wales: baby names statistics, boys
Official boys' name ranks and counts, broken out for England and for Wales.
View source
Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru2026
GPC Online, entry for dylan
The standard historical dictionary of Welsh, with quotations from the 1300s on.
View source
National Library of Wales2014-10-24
THOMAS, DYLAN MARLAIS (1914-1953), poet and prose writer
Walford Davies on the poet's birth, his naming, and his American reading tours.
View source
The Nobel Foundation2016
Bob Dylan, Facts, Nobel Prize in Literature 2016
The laureate's official record, including his birth name and prize citation.
View source
Literature Wales
International Dylan Thomas Day
The organisers on why the poet's day falls on 14 May.
View source
Project Gutenberg1877
The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest
The full 1877 English translation, including the baptism of Dylan.
View source
Additional coverage
Museum of Music History
Two English Operas first performed in the summer of 1914
Cast, date and venue for Holbrooke's Dylan, Son of the Wave.
View source
Playboy1978-03
Playboy Interview: Bob Dylan, March 1978
Ron Rosenbaum asks about the name change and gets a flat denial.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Dylan
A reference entry on the name, its variants Dillon and Dillan, and its bearers.
View source
Wikipedia
Beverly Hills, 90210
The series history, including its slow start and 1991 summer breakout.
View source
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