Holiday Calendar

National Henry Day

Next celebratedFriday, August 6, 2027

The Social Security Administration rarely stops to comment on its own list, but in 2021 it paused for Henry: steadily rising, and last in the top ten more than a century earlier. August 6 belongs to everyone still carrying it.

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

Community Origin

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

A day that lives entirely in use.

National Henry Day arrived without an establishing record. Searches of government proclamations and resolutions return only observances for individuals named Henry, such as Patrick Henry and Henry Clay, none of which concerns this day. It surfaces on holiday-listing sites with an August 6 date from at least 2022, and the earliest dated observance that can be verified is a British consumer brand's post on 6 August 2024, followed by two British regional newsrooms on 6 August 2025.

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INTRO

A 110-year wait between top-ten finishes

In the spring of 2021 the Social Security Administration published its list of the most popular American baby names and stopped to explain one of them. Henry had "been steadily rising in popularity," the agency wrote, and had last appeared in the top ten over a century earlier. The gap came to 110 years.

That sounds like a name returning from the dead. It is not. Henry has never once fallen out of America's top 150 boys' names.

The federal name record opens in 1880 and runs to the present day. Henry appears in all 146 of those years. What the name lost was never its place on the list, only its place near the top.

The day itself has no such trail. Nothing on file says who first attached Henry to August 6, and the observance survives on use alone.

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ORIGINS

Henry Day history

CHAPTER 01

The ruler of the house

Henry began as the Germanic Heimirich, which Behind the Name translates as "home ruler", from heim meaning home and rih meaning ruler. The Online Etymology Dictionary arrives at the same root by a different road, giving the Old High German Heimerich as "the ruler of the house". Both trace the form England inherited to the Normans.

The name then took up residence in the monarchy. Eight English kings carried it, a line that closed with Henry VIII, who succeeded in 1509. Seven German kings and four French kings carried its continental forms.

CHAPTER 02

Eighty years down, thirty years back

When the American record opens in 1880, Henry sits ninth among boys. The slide begins early in the following century and does not stop for eighty years.

Where the bottom sits depends entirely on what is being counted. Henry's modern low comes in 1979. Its share of American boys reaches its own low seven years after that.

The rank did not turn until 1994, fifteen years after the count had already begun to recover. The name was climbing while it still appeared to be sinking, because the pool of names in use was widening underneath it.

CHAPTER 03

The Henrys who were not born Henry

The name also travels under borrowed signatures. William Sydney Porter entered the Columbus penitentiary in 1898 for embezzlement and worked as night druggist in the prison hospital. Britannica records that when he emerged, Porter had become O. Henry.

Another Henry became a measurement. Delegates at an International Congress of Electricians in Chicago named eight units of electrical measure in 1893, among them the ohm, the volt, the watt and the henry. The Smithsonian notes that it is the only one named after an American, and that the motion came from the head of the French delegation.

National Henry Day arrived without any of that. Nothing names the person or group who chose the date, and the earliest observance that can be verified is a British brand's post from August 2024. Two regional newsrooms followed a year later.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The eighth King Henry

Henry VIII succeeds to the English throne, the last of the eight English kings to carry the name.

A name becomes a unit

An International Congress of Electricians in Chicago adopts the henry as the unit of inductance, alongside the ohm, the volt and the watt.

The last top-ten year

Henry finishes tenth among American boys. It will not reach the top ten again for well over a century.

The count bottoms out

Only 1,947 American boys are recorded as Henry, the fewest in the modern record.

The lowest rank on file

Henry reaches its weakest position anywhere in the federal series. From here the rank turns and begins to recover.

Fifth among American boys

Henry reaches fifth place with 12,020 boys, the highest single-year count the record holds.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Henry Day by the Numbers

#145
Henry's lowest US rank since 1880
36
Years Henry spent outside the US top 100
17
Straight years of rising US rank
768,945
US boys named Henry, 1880 to 2025

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Henry Day

Continuity

Every year since 1880 has a Henry in it, which is what makes the dips possible to date.

Henry is present in every year of the American record, from the first file in 1880 to the most recent. That continuity is what makes the whole arc readable: the long descent and the recovery sit on one unbroken series, with no missing years to guess at.

Measurement

Popularity needs a definition

Ask when Henry was least popular and the honest reply is a question back: least popular by which measure? The count, the share and the rank each hit bottom in a different year, so any single turning point quoted for a name is one of those three choices made silently, and usually made without telling the reader.

Proportion

Bigger is not the same as more common

As a slice of American boys, Henry today sits well below where it stood in the 1880s and again in the 1920s, even though more boys receive the name now than in any earlier year. A population that has grown makes raw totals and shares tell opposite stories.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

National Henry Day went viral online on 6 August 2019.

The truth

This claim circulates widely but nothing supports it. Archived copies of a major holiday-listing site's August 6 page, captured for 2019 and for later years, contain no mention of Henry at all, while other observances listed on those same pages appear exactly as expected. The earliest listing that can be dated is from 2022 and the earliest dated post is from 2024.

The myth

Harry is a modern nickname invented for boys called Henry.

The truth

Behind the Name records that during the later Middle Ages the name was generally rendered as Harry or Herry in English pronunciation, so Harry is roughly how Henry was ordinarily said rather than a later invention. The pattern still holds: the Duke of Sussex, known to everyone as Harry, was christened Henry Charles Albert David.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Henry Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up a Henry's own year

The Social Security Administration publishes its baby-name data year by year, so any Henry can find exactly where the name stood when they were born. Someone born in the 1990s will find it near its weakest point ever; someone born recently will find it in the top ten.

TELL

Tell a Henry

The British newsrooms that mark the day keep the instruction simple, asking readers to send a Henry some love or spoil him for the afternoon. A message costs nothing, and nothing more elaborate than that has been documented anywhere.

FOLLOW

Follow the name across borders

France rendered the Latin Henricus as Henri, and the spelling that took hold in German was Heinrich. Saying the three aloud in order is a quick tour of how one Germanic compound travelled.

READ

Read an O. Henry story

William Sydney Porter wrote to earn money for his daughter Margaret while serving a sentence in Ohio. The term ran three years and three months, cut down from five for good behaviour, and any collection of his short fiction is a way to mark the day.

PICK

Pick your Henry

Behind the Name's own list of notable bearers runs from the arctic naval explorer Henry Hudson to the novelist Henry James, the automobile manufacturer Henry Ford and the actor Henry Fonda. Four lives, four trades, one name.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Henry Day?

1 / 8

What does the Germanic name behind Henry mean?

Answer

No. It has no legal standing anywhere that could be located, and no government proclamation or legislative resolution establishes it. Searches of federal records return only observances honouring particular individuals named Henry, such as Patrick Henry and Henry Clay, which are unrelated to this day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

12sources
8primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2025 data
Popular Baby Names: national data (names.zip, yob1880 to yob2025)
The federal baby-name series, drawn from Social Security card applications, listing every given name recorded at least five times in a year for every year from 1880 to 2025. Every rank, count and total on this page is computed from it, counting only the spelling Henry among boys and never summing variants such as Harry, Henri or Heinrich. Ranks are ordered by count with an alphabetical tiebreak; for Henry the alternative convention, which counts how many names score higher, gives an identical rank in every year this page cites.
View source
Social Security Administration2021-05-07
Olivia and Liam are Social Security's Top Baby Names for 2020
The agency's own announcement of the 2020 name rankings, which places Henry ninth and states that the name had been steadily rising and had last appeared in the top ten in 1910. This is the source for the 110-year gap.
View source
The Royal Family
Henry VIII (r.1509-1547)
The monarchy's own biographical record for Henry VIII, giving his birth at Greenwich in 1491 and his succession in 1509, used here to date the last of the eight English kings to carry the name.
View source
The Royal Family
About The Duke of Sussex
The official biography stating that the prince known publicly as Harry was christened Henry Charles Albert David, which links the modern nickname directly to the formal name.
View source
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Unit of Inductance Named the Henry
The archival record of the August 1893 International Congress of Electricians in Chicago, which adopted eight units of electrical measure including the henry, notes that it is the only one named after an American, and credits the motion to the leader of the French delegation.
View source
Hope for Henry
Meet Henry
The foundation's own account of Henry Strongin Goldberg, born 25 October 1995 and died in December 2002, and of its establishment by his parents in 2003. Used to distinguish the separate October 25 observance from this day.
View source
MyHenry2024-08-06
It's National Henry Day
A British consumer brand marking the day on 6 August 2024, the earliest dated observance of National Henry Day that could be verified anywhere.
View source
WalesOnline2025-08-06
August 6 is National Henry Day
A British regional newsroom marking the day on 6 August 2025 and telling readers that if they know an awesome Henry, the day is for spoiling him.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Henry
An etymological reference deriving Henry from the Germanic Heimirich meaning home ruler, tracing the Norman introduction to England and the eight English kings, and recording that the name was generally rendered as Harry or Herry in later medieval English pronunciation.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Henry
An independent second etymology, tracing Henry through French Henri and Late Latin Henricus to the Old High German Heimerich, glossed as the ruler of the house, and noting it as one of the most popular Norman names after the Conquest.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
O. Henry
The biography of William Sydney Porter, covering his 1896 embezzlement indictment, his 1898 entry into the Columbus penitentiary, his work as night druggist in the prison hospital, and his emergence from prison as O. Henry.
View source
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia2026-07-14
John Henry
Brett Williams's entry on the John Henry legend, covering the Big Bend Tunnel work between 1870 and 1872, the scholarly caution that the contours of his life cannot be known, and the annual John Henry Days held each July at Talcott.
View source
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