Holiday Calendar

National Hunter Day

Next celebratedMonday, November 9, 2026

Hunter Thompson was one of only 35 American boys given the name in 1937, years before he invented gonzo journalism. November 9 belongs to the name and to the 12,538 boys who got it in its biggest year.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATENovember 9
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
“The archive can date the listing. It cannot date the day.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The trail runs out in July 2022.

No founder, organisation or establishing document for National Hunter Day has been identified, and no government recognition of it was located. The earliest datable trace of the observance sits between July 10 and August 8, 2022, when it appears in an archived holiday listing that did not carry it four weeks earlier. That evidence dates the listing, not the creation of the day, so no inception year is recorded here.

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INTRO

Scotland barely used Hunter while America ranked it 35th

In 2000, Hunter was the 35th most popular name given to boys born in the United States. In Scotland that year, fewer than three boys received it.

By 2019 the order had reversed. Hunter stood 27th in Scotland. In the United States it had fallen to 66th.

National Hunter Day lands on November 9 and belongs to the people who answer to the name. The name is a job. It comes from an Old English word for someone who hunts.

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ORIGINS

Hunter Day history

INTRODUCTION

When Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1937, he was one of 35 American boys given the name that year. He went on to invent gonzo journalism. The name he carried was, at the time, unremarkable.

Hunter had been in the American counts from the beginning. The first annual list, covering 1880, records 12 boys with the name. Through 1975 it never passed 113 boys in a single year.

CHAPTER 01

What the files do and do not show

Those records have a floor. The agency publishes only names reaching at least five births in a year, so a year with no Hunter means fewer than five boys, not none. Exactly one year since 1880 falls below that line, and it is 1887.

CHAPTER 02

One decade changed everything

Then the name moved. In 1990, 1,391 American boys were named Hunter. Three years later it entered the country's top 100 for the first time.

It kept climbing. By 2000 the annual figure had reached 12,538 boys, more than the name has recorded in any other single year.

It also stayed. Hunter held a place in the American top 100 from 1993 through 2021. That is 29 consecutive years, and the name has not returned to the list since.

CHAPTER 03

A day nobody signed

National Hunter Day has no comparable record. No founder, organisation or establishing document has been identified for it, and no proclamation or resolution recognising it was located.

What can be dated is the paperwork. The day is missing from an archived holiday listing captured on July 10, 2022, and present in a capture of that same page four weeks later, on August 8, 2022.

That four-week window is the earliest trace of the day found in the records checked, and it dates the listing rather than the observance. Why it settled on November 9 is not recorded either.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Twelve boys in the first list

The first annual US list of given names records 12 boys named Hunter.

Hunter S. Thompson is born

The future gonzo journalist arrives in Louisville, Kentucky, one of 35 American boys named Hunter that year.

First Hunter in Scotland's register

Four boys named Hunter appear in Scotland's birth register, the first in a series that begins in 1974.

New Zealand's top 100

Hunter enters the New Zealand top 100 boys' names for the first time, at 85th.

The American peak

American parents give the name to 12,538 boys, more than in any other year on record.

The day leaves its first trace

National Hunter Day appears in an archived holiday listing that had not carried it four weeks earlier.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Hunter Day Matters

REACH

The girls' peak came two years before the boys'.

American records hold 14,384 girls named Hunter alongside the boys. The girls' figure peaked in 1998, two years before the boys' did.

LANGUAGE

A job title people answer to

Hunter is an ordinary English word for an occupation that also works as a name. It reached that position the long way round, serving as a surname before it was ever a first name.

GEOGRAPHY

Four countries, four different schedules

The name's story is not an American one alone. New Zealand, Scotland, and England and Wales each took it up on their own timetable, and none of them matched the American one.

AT A GLANCE

The name Hunter at a glance

Origin
English occupational surname
Root
Old English hunta, from huntian, to hunt
Gender
Masculine and feminine
US boys recorded, 1880 to 2025
262,238
US rank for the 2000s
41st, with 94,860 boys

GOOD TO KNOW

National Hunter Day Around the World

New Zealand

5th among boys in both 2017 and 2018, and still 26th in 2025 with 105 births

Scotland

54th in 2025 with 79 boys, after most of the 1990s in which fewer than three Scottish boys a year received it

England and Wales

91st among boys in 2025, with 595 births registered

United States

130th among boys in 2025, with 2,761 births, a long way below the peak it reached in 2000

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Hunter Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look the name up in a national register

The statistics agencies of the United States, Scotland, New Zealand and England and Wales all publish their baby-name files free. Find the year a Hunter you know was born and see where the name sat.

READ

Read the Hunter who invented gonzo journalism

Hunter S. Thompson invented gonzo journalism. An hour with his work is a fair way to spend the day.

CHECK

Check which hunting day you actually mean

A separate American observance covers hunting and fishing, and it is not this one. Confusing the two is the standard mistake about this date.

TRACE

Trace an occupational surname in your own family

Hunter is one of many surnames that began as a description of what someone did for a living. Work back through your own family names and see how many were once job titles.

TELL

Tell a Hunter the day exists

Most people named Hunter have no idea that November 9 is attached to them. Passing it on is the entire mechanism by which a day like this survives.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Hunter Day?

1 / 8

In which year did the name Hunter reach its highest annual count among American boys?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing located, so November 9 is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

8sources
6primary records
7independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2025 data year
Beyond the Top 1000 Names: national baby-name data
Annual national counts of every US given name reaching at least five births, one file per year from 1880 to 2025. The source for Hunter's American series, its 2000 peak of 12,538 boys, its 29-year run in the top 100 and the 1887 gap.
View source
Social Security Administration2000s decade
Top names of the 2000s
The agency's own decade aggregate for births in the 2000s, drawn from 21,277,426 boy births, which prints Hunter at 41st with 94,860.
View source
National Records of ScotlandMay 26, 2026
Babies' First Names 2025
Every forename registered in Scotland from 1974 to 2025 with counts and ranks, plus the rule that names with two or fewer are suppressed, which is why a missing year means fewer than three rather than none.
View source
Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand2025 data year
Top 100 Baby Boys' Names in New Zealand, 1954 to 2025
New Zealand's official annual top-100 boys' names with counts for every year since 1954, the source for Hunter reaching 5th in 2017 and 2018.
View source
Office for National Statistics2025 data year
Baby names for boys in England and Wales
The top 100 boys' names in England and Wales with counts, giving Hunter at 91st with 595 births in 2025.
View source
US Fish and Wildlife ServiceSeptember 25, 2025
Why We Love National Hunting and Fishing Day
A federal agency account of National Hunting and Fishing Day, the separate American observance held on the fourth Saturday of September that readers most often confuse with this one.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the NameMay 26, 2026
Meaning, origin and history of the name Hunter
The etymology of Hunter as an English occupational surname from the Old English hunta, from huntian, to hunt, sourced there to Reaney and Wilson's A Dictionary of English Surnames.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hunter S. Thompson
Thompson's birth in Louisville, Kentucky on 18 July 1937, his death in 2005, and his creation of gonzo journalism.
View source
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