Is National Hug a Kevin Day a public holiday?

No. It is an unofficial observance, not a federal or public holiday, so it is a normal working day with businesses and schools open.

Who created National Hug a Kevin Day and why?

ABC Television Network created it in 2017 to promote its series Kevin (Probably) Saves the World. The show was cancelled after one season, but the October 10 date kept circulating.

Is this the same as National Hugging Day?

No, they are different days. National Hugging Day is January 21 and is about hugging in general, while National Hug a Kevin Day is October 10 and is about people named Kevin. By coincidence, National Hugging Day was founded by a man named Kevin Zaborney.

Does Jason Ritter still hold the most-hugs-in-a-minute record?

Ritter set the record in 2017 with 86 hugs in one minute, but it has since been broken. Satoru Shibata reached 87 in 2019, and the current holder is Sam Thompson of the UK with 88 hugs, set in January 2024.

How can you celebrate National Hug a Kevin Day?

People mark it by hugging or appreciating the Kevins they know, sharing the day on social media, or reading up on the history of the name. It is a light, affectionate observance with no formal rules.

National Hug a Kevin Day

Next celebratedSaturday, October 10, 2026

An unofficial October 10 observance in the United States that encourages people to hug or appreciate anyone named Kevin.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated March 19, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEOctober 10

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Media Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

ABC Television Network

FIRST OBSERVED

2017

“ABC named October 10 National Hug-a-Kevin Day in 2017, built around a single new TV series.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A network promo day that outlived its show.

ABC Television Network designated October 10 as National Hug-a-Kevin Day in 2017 to promote its dramedy Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, starring Jason Ritter as Kevin Finn. To launch it, Ritter set a Guinness World Record for most hugs given in one minute on ABC's The View on October 9, 2017.

INTRO

The TV show is gone, the Kevins remain

A major television network once invented a holiday to sell a single show. In 2017, ABC declared October 10 National Hug-a-Kevin Day, tied to a new dramedy called Kevin (Probably) Saves the World. The series lasted one season. The day did not go with it.

The launch was not subtle. On October 9, 2017, actor Jason Ritter walked onto ABC's The View and set a Guinness World Record by giving 86 hugs in one minute, with help from a line of 95 volunteers and the show's co-hosts. It was a record then. It is not anymore.

What that stunt latched onto was a name far older than any sitcom. Kevin traces back to a sixth-century Irish saint, and by the 1960s it ranked among the most popular boys' names in America. ABC's product is long gone. The name it borrowed, and the millions of Americans who carry it, never needed the show.

ORIGINS

Hug a Kevin Day history

INTRODUCTION

The day is new. The name is ancient. To understand why a network thought "Kevin" was worth a holiday, start fifteen centuries before television existed.

CHAPTER 01

The first Kevin was a saint

The name comes from the Irish Caoimhin, drawn from the Old Irish Coemgein. Behind the Name glosses the root as "beloved birth," from coem meaning dear or gentle plus gein meaning birth. For most of its history, the name belonged almost entirely to Ireland.

Its source was a person. Saint Kevin of Glendalough was a sixth-century hermit who, by tradition, lived from around 498 to 618 and founded a monastery in the valley of Glendalough in County Wicklow. He is a patron saint of the Archdiocese of Dublin, and his feast falls on June 3. The dates are hagiographical, not firm history, but the monastery is real. Its round tower, stone churches, and carved crosses still stand in the glaciated valley today.

CHAPTER 02

An Irish name conquers America

For centuries Kevin stayed Irish. Then the twentieth century pulled it across the Atlantic and up the charts. By 1950 it sat around number 73 among American boys, and within a decade it had broken into the top 15.

The climb peaked twice, in two different ways. Its best rank came in 1963. Its highest share of births came two years later, in 1965, edging past 1963 by a whisker. A name that began with one Irish hermit was suddenly being given to tens of thousands of American children a year.

CHAPTER 03

Hollywood, then a one-season pitch

By the time pop culture arrived, the name was everywhere, and screenwriters noticed. Home Alone made Kevin McCallister a household name in 1990. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon turned another Kevin into a parlor game in 1994. The name was familiar enough to anchor a joke, a film, or a marketing campaign.

That last use is where the holiday comes in. In 2017 ABC declared October 10 National Hug-a-Kevin Day to promote Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, in which Jason Ritter played a man named Kevin Finn. The network engineered a live Guinness record as the launch hook. Then ABC cancelled the show in May 2018 after one season. The promotion had no product left to sell, yet the October 10 date kept circulating on its own.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Saint Kevin founds Glendalough

The Irish hermit Caoimhin, reputedly born around 498, founds a monastery in County Wicklow, making the name famous across Ireland. His feast day is June 3.

Kevin peaks in US rankings

Kevin reaches its best-ever rank among American boys' names at number 11, the high point of a fast mid-century climb.

Home Alone arrives

Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister becomes one of the most recognizable Kevins in pop culture, in a film that grosses about 476.7 million dollars worldwide.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Three Albright College students invent the trivia game that turns actor Kevin Bacon into the center of Hollywood's connection map.

ABC launches the holiday

ABC names October 10 National Hug-a-Kevin Day to promote Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, and Jason Ritter sets the 86-hug record on The View to kick it off.

Ritter's record is broken

Sam Thompson of the UK gives 88 hugs in one minute on January 15, retiring Ritter's 2017 figure for good after Satoru Shibata had already passed it with 87 in 2019.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Hug a Kevin Day by the Numbers

#11: Kevin's peak US name rank, 1963
1.487%: Peak share of US boy births, 1965
~1.1M: Living Americans named Kevin
86: Hugs Jason Ritter gave in 60 seconds, 2017

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Hug a Kevin Day

The signature record has already fallen twice

The 86-hug mark Ritter set in 2017 did not last. Satoru Shibata passed it with 87 in 2019, and Sam Thompson reached 88 in 2024, leaving the day's launch stat a former record rather than the current one.

Home Alone held a Guinness record for two decades

The most famous Kevin in film, Kevin McCallister, starred in a movie that held the Guinness record for highest-grossing live-action comedy for about 21 years, until The Hangover Part II passed it in 2011.

Almost every actor is about three Kevins away

The Six Degrees game claims any Hollywood actor can be linked to Kevin Bacon in a handful of steps. The math mostly holds: the average Bacon number, an actor's degrees of separation from Bacon, works out to about three.

Kevin Bacon disliked the game at first

Bacon initially felt the trivia game mocked him. He eventually embraced it, and in 2007 he turned the meme into a charity, launching SixDegrees.org.

America's other hugging day was founded by a Kevin too

National Hugging Day, the older January 21 observance, was created in 1986 by a man named Kevin Zaborney. Two American hugging observances, two Kevins, one as a namesake and one as a founder.

GOOD TO KNOW

Famous Kevins

Kevin McCallister

The eight-year-old hero of Home Alone, played by Macaulay Culkin, accidentally left behind at Christmas. The film was added to the US National Film Registry in 2023.

Kevin Bacon

The actor at the center of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the game that maps Hollywood through his filmography. Bacon himself sits at zero; every other actor gets a number counting the steps back to him.

Saint Kevin of Glendalough

The sixth-century Irish hermit who founded the County Wicklow monastery, a patron saint of the Archdiocese of Dublin with a feast day on June 3.

Kevin Finn

The fictional Kevin at the root of this holiday, played by Jason Ritter in ABC's Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, the show the day was built to promote.

Kevin Zaborney

The founder of National Hugging Day, the separate January 21 observance, who happens to share the name the October day celebrates.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Hug a Kevin Day

MARKETING

The product was cancelled in under a year; the day it was built to sell is still observed.

Most observances have murky origins. This one has a paper trail: a network, a launch date, a publicity stunt, and a product. It shows how easily a corporate campaign can mint a calendar day that then outlives the campaign itself.

NAMES

It spotlights one of the century's signature names

Kevin was given to American boys at its highest rate in the mid-1960s and stayed common for decades after. A day named for it gives a concrete reason to look at how a single Irish name became a generational marker carried by a whole cohort.

RECORDS

It anchors a record that keeps changing hands

The hugs-in-a-minute record the day launched has been broken twice since 2017. The observance is a small, recurring reminder that a headline statistic can quietly go stale while the page that prints it stays the same.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Hug a Kevin Day

Actually hug a Kevin

Find the Kevins in your life and give them a hug, with consent, in keeping with the day's whole premise. If you do not know one, a message celebrating the day works just as well.

TRY

Try to beat a Guinness pace

Round up some willing friends and see how many hugs you can give in one minute. For the bar to clear, the world record stands at 88, set in 2024; the current record details are public.

LOOK

Look up the name's Irish roots

Spend a few minutes with the etymology of Kevin and its origin in the Irish Caoimhin. Reference sites like Behind the Name trace the meaning and its journey into English.

PLAN

Plan a trip to Glendalough

The monastery that made the name famous still draws visitors to County Wicklow. The official Heritage Ireland page covers the round tower, churches, and how to visit.

HOST

Host a famous-Kevins movie night

Build a watchlist around the most celebrated Kevins on screen, from Home Alone's Kevin McCallister to a Kevin Bacon film. Challenge guests to chart each actor's path back to Bacon.

Test your knowledge