Holiday Calendar

National Harry Day

Next celebratedSaturday, December 19, 2026

Harry was never short for Henry - it was how the English said Henry, and every Harris and Harrison surname is the evidence. December 19 gives the name a day, in a language that also made Old Harry a name for the Devil.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 19
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

Its trail starts on other people's holiday calendars.

No founder, organising body or establishing record for National Harry Day has been documented. It circulates on third-party holiday listings without an identified author.

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

An 1811 slang dictionary put Harry beside the Devil

The name behind National Harry Day has a second life most Harrys never hear about. Open Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, printed in 1811, at the entry for Old Harry. One of the two definitions there is the devil.

The other is a compound that vintners used to adulterate their wine. Both senses sat on the same line.

Only the devil survived. Collins English Dictionary still lists Old Harry as a jocular name for Satan. That is a strange thing to find attached to one of the plainest boys' names in English.

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ORIGINS

Harry Day history

INTRODUCTION

Harry began as a way of saying Henry, not a way of shortening it. Behind the Name records it as the medieval English form of Henry, with a variant, Herry, beside it. In modern use it doubles as a diminutive of Henry and of names beginning with Har.

How ordinary that pronunciation once was survives in English surnames. Etymonline reports that Weekley took the overwhelming number of Harris and Harrison surnames as evidence that Harry, not Henry, was the Middle English pronunciation. Henry itself goes back to Old High German Heimerich, the ruler of the house.

CHAPTER 01

Seventy-five years between two entries

The older of the two slang entries is not about the devil at all. Nathan Bailey's Canting Dictionary of 1736 defines Old Harry as a Composition used by Vintners when they bedevil their Wines. The devil is in that sentence only as a verb.

Seventy-five years separate Bailey from Grose, and somewhere in that gap the second meaning reaches print. What the two books fix is the moment each sense was written down, not the moment either entered speech. Nothing in the record explains how a boy's name picked up the other job.

CHAPTER 02

Two records, two different peaks

The birth registers tell a much plainer story. The American federal name record opens in 1880 with Harry already twelfth, recorded for 2,152 boys that year.

Its best placing came in 1889, at eighth. Its biggest single year came three decades later, in 1918, when 9,896 boys were given the name. Those are two different measures of popularity, and they point at two different eras.

CHAPTER 03

The trail begins in a holiday listing

The day itself has almost no record. The earliest archived capture of National Harry Day on a third-party holiday listing dates to August 2022, which puts a floor under how long it has circulated rather than fixing when it began.

No founder, sponsor or establishing document has been found for it. The US Federal Register holds no document under this name.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Harry Day

NAMING

Christened Henry Charles Albert David, known to everyone as Harry.

The Royal Family's own record states that the Duke of Sussex was christened Henry Charles Albert David at St George's Chapel, Windsor. The public has known him as Harry ever since.

MEASUREMENT

Rankings turn on the exact spelling

The Office for National Statistics builds its lists from the exact spelling entered at birth registration, and states that grouping names with similar pronunciation would change the rankings. Harry and Henry are counted as two separate names, each with its own record.

REACH

Top of one list, sixth on another

In 2012, the year Harry led England and Wales combined, Jacob was the most popular boys' name in Wales, with Harry sixth there. A single national ranking can hide a whole country inside it.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Harry Day by the Numbers

19th
Harry's 2025 rank, England and Wales
1,718
Harry births, England and Wales 2025
42nd
Harry's 2025 rank in Wales alone
775th
Harry's 2025 rank in the United States
423,866+
US Harrys recorded since 1880

TIMELINE

Timeline

Old Harry means doctored wine

Nathan Bailey's canting dictionary defines the phrase as a compound vintners used when they bedevil their wines.

Grose adds the devil

Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue carries the wine sense and the nickname for the devil side by side.

The US record opens

Harry ranks twelfth in the first year of American federal name data, with 2,152 boys.

Harry's best American rank

The name reaches eighth in the United States, its highest placing anywhere on the federal record.

Its biggest American year

The record counts 9,896 boys, more than in any other year, at twentieth place.

Number one in England and Wales

Harry tops the England and Wales register for a second year running, given to 7,168 boys.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Harry Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Toast every Harry you know

The oldest dictionary sense of Old Harry was a compound that vintners quietly stirred into their wine. Pour something better than that, and tell the Harry in question where the phrase came from.

READ

Read the 1811 entry for yourself

Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is long out of copyright and freely transcribed online. Look up Old Harry and read both definitions in the order they were printed.

CHECK

Check where Harry sits in the register now

The Office for National Statistics publishes the full top hundred boys' names each year as a downloadable spreadsheet. Open the latest one and find the row for Harry.

HUNT

Hunt for Harris or Harrison in your family tree

Behind the Name records both surnames as descendants of Harry. That is the pattern Weekley pointed at, and a Harris in your family tree is one more instance of it.

SETTLE

Settle the date before you post about it

One listing site puts National Harry Day on February 1, while the better-attested date is December 19. Check which one a post means before you share it.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Harry Day?

1 / 8

Francis Grose's 1811 slang dictionary gave Old Harry two meanings. What were they?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance, so offices, banks and schools stay open, and the US Federal Register carries no document naming it.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

10sources
7primary records
7independently dated
Primary records
Office for National Statistics2026-07-09
Baby names for boys in England and Wales: 2025
Top 100 boys' names with counts and rank changes, England, Wales and both combined.
View source
Office for National Statistics2013-08-12
Baby names in England and Wales: 2012
The year Harry led the register, with regional, monthly and Wales-only breakdowns.
View source
US Social Security Administration2025
National baby names data, 1880 to 2025
Every first name recorded on US card applications each year, with counts by sex.
View source
The Royal Household
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
The household's own account of the Duke's birth and christening names.
View source
US Federal Register2026
Federal Register documents search API
Full-text search of federal notices, rules and proclamations by exact phrase.
View source
Francis Grose1811
A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811 edition
The 1811 slang entry giving Old Harry as both a wine compound and the devil.
View source
Nathan Bailey1736
Canting Dictionary, 1736
The earlier entry, in which Old Harry is a vintners' compound and nothing more.
View source
Additional coverage
HarperCollins2025
Old Harry, Collins English Dictionary
The surviving modern sense in British and American English.
View source
Douglas Harper
Harry, Online Etymology Dictionary
Weekley's surname argument, and the separate roots of the name and the verb.
View source
Behind the Name
Harry
Harry as the medieval English form of Henry, with its variants and surname descendants.
View source
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