Holiday Calendar

National Jackson Day

Next celebratedWednesday, March 3, 2027

Jackson is the 19th commonest surname in the United States, held by 708,099 people, and for thirteen straight years it beat John as a first name too. March 3 is for everyone who carries it, inherited or chosen.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEMarch 3
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

An exhaustively recorded name with an unrecorded holiday.

No establishment record for a March 3 Jackson name day appears in any primary or citable source. The day circulates on holiday listings, none of which names an originator, a first observance, or an establishing act.

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INTRO

American parents chose Jackson over John for thirteen straight years

Every Jackson is, at bottom, a son of John. The surname means son of Jack, and Jack began as a medieval English nickname for John. National Jackson Day belongs to everyone who ended up with the shortcut.

Then the shortcut overtook the original. For thirteen years running, American parents registered more newborn boys under the spelling Jackson than under the spelling John.

That run began in 2010. John took the lead back in 2023, so the reversal was real and it was temporary. Both counts are of the exact spellings, in the Social Security Administration's yearly files.

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ORIGINS

Jackson Day history

INTRODUCTION

Jackson nearly fell out of American use in the middle of the twentieth century. By 1966 it was going to eighty-two newborn boys a year. That was its lowest count in more than half a century.

Then it climbed, and it kept climbing for almost forty years. The annual figure passed twelve thousand in 2013. The question worth asking is what lifted it.

CHAPTER 01

The obvious explanation does not survive the dates

Michael Jackson released Thriller on 30 November 1982, and it became the best-selling album in the world. If one performer could move a name, the record should jump here.

It sinks instead. Three hundred boys were named Jackson in 1981, and the figure fell in each of the next three years. The eight-Grammy night for Thriller landed in 1984, in the middle of that slide.

That stretch is the only multi-year decline anywhere in the name's long rise, and it sits exactly where the popular story predicts a surge.

CHAPTER 02

The climb had plenty of company

The real takeoff came at the end of the eighties, five to seven years after the album. The sharpest year was 1990, when the federal count rose by more than half.

Jackson was not alone in it. Nine other English surnames were turning into American boys' first names over the same span, among them Mason and Bentley. Measured from 1980, Jackson grew more than forty-fold, which put it only sixth in that group of ten.

CHAPTER 03

A day that arrived without paperwork

National Jackson Day arrived without paperwork of its own. Nothing on file records a first observance, and the listings that carry it name no organiser. The name is documented year by year, and March 3 rests on that instead.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Jackson Day by the Numbers

19th
Jackson's rank among US surnames
708,099
Americans with the Jackson surname
9 years
Jackson inside SSA's boys top twenty
0.261%
US Jackson births recorded as girls

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Jackson Day

Jackson Pollock's own family called him Jack

The National Gallery of Art files the painter under his birth name, Paul Jackson Pollock. The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds a 1930 portrait of him by his brother Charles, catalogued as 'Jack (Jackson Pollock)'.

Virginia deleted a Jackson Day and put Election Day there

HB 108, approved on 23 March 2020, 'designates Election Day, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, as a state holiday and removes Lee-Jackson Day as a state holiday.'

A governor created a brand new Jackson Day in 2024

Maryland's Wes Moore named Sunday 11 February 2024 Lamar Jackson Day, for the Baltimore Ravens quarterback's second NFL MVP award.

Count John's nicknames together and the result flips

The comparison counts exact spellings in Social Security files from 1880 through 2025, with ties broken alphabetically as the agency does. Add Jon, Johnny and Jonathan to John's column and Jackson never leads in any of those years.

Jack turned into an ordinary English word for a man

The nickname was common enough in medieval English to work as an ordinary noun. It survives that way in jack-o'-lantern, jack-in-the-box and lumberjack.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Jackson means son of Jacques, or son of Jacob.

The truth

Reaney and Wilson's Dictionary of English Surnames gives it as son of Jack, and Jack descends from Jackin, earlier Jankin, a medieval pet form of John. The French Jacques is a separate name and unrelated to it.

The myth

National Jackson Day is the Jackson Day that honours Andrew Jackson.

The truth

That one falls on January 8, the anniversary of his 1815 victory at New Orleans, and TIME was already describing quadrennial Jackson Day dinners in Washington by 1923. Louisiana still keeps January 8 as a legal holiday, listed in statute as Battle of New Orleans.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Jackson Day

COHORT

86.8% of recorded Jacksons were born in 2000 or later.

Of the 297,220 American boys the federal record lists as Jackson, 86.8% were born in 2000 or later. The day lands on a young population, not an old one.

MEASUREMENT

Anyone named Jackson can look up their own year

Social Security publishes a count for every name given to at least five American babies in a year. A Jackson born in any year on file can find out exactly how many others arrived alongside them.

CONTINUITY

The name has never once left the record

Jackson appears in all 146 of the federal yearly name files. The count starts at 46 boys in 1880, and there is no year on record without it.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Jackson Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look the name up in the federal file

Social Security publishes a downloadable count for every year since 1880 at its Beyond the Top 1000 Names page. Find the year a Jackson you know was born and see how crowded the classroom was going to be.

ASK

Ask a Jackson how the name reached them

Some carry it down from a grandparent and some were given it new. The answer is usually a small piece of family history.

STAND

Stand in front of a Jackson Pollock

Look him up at the National Gallery of Art first, then go and find one of his canvases in person. A painting in a room is nothing like the same picture on a screen.

COUNT

Count the Jacks and Johns in your family tree

Open a family tree and mark every Jack and every John in it. Seeing them next to a Jackson in one chart makes the connection concrete in a way a definition never manages.

STRAIGHTEN

Straighten out which Jackson Day this is

Plenty of people assume any Jackson Day is the January one about the general. The two are unrelated, and this one makes no claim about anybody in particular.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Jackson Day?

1 / 8

What does the surname Jackson literally mean?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no official standing on record, so schools, banks and offices keep normal hours.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

12sources
7primary records
7independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration2025 data year
Popular Baby Names: Beyond the Top 1000 Names
One file per birth year since 1880, naming every US name given to five or more babies.
View source
U.S. Census Bureau2010 census
Frequently Occurring Surnames from the 2010 Census
Rank and count for every surname reported 100 or more times in the 2010 census.
View source
Virginia Legislative Information System2020
HB 108, State holidays; Election Day, Lee-Jackson Day (2020 Session)
The legislature's own record of the bill that ended Virginia's Lee-Jackson Day.
View source
Office of the Governor of Maryland9 February 2024
Governor Moore Proclaims Lamar Jackson Day In Maryland
The governor's press release naming Lamar Jackson Day, with the proclamation text in full.
View source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Jackson Pollock, artist record
The museum's record for the painter, including his brother's 1930 portrait titled 'Jack'.
View source
National Gallery of Art
Jackson Pollock, artist record
The gallery's catalogue entry, filing the artist under the name Pollock, Paul Jackson.
View source
Justia, Louisiana Revised Statutes
Louisiana Revised Statutes 1:55, Days of public rest, legal holidays, and half-holidays
Louisiana's statutory holiday list, which sets January 8 down as Battle of New Orleans.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name26 May 2026
Meaning, origin and history of the surname Jackson
The surname entry for Jackson, cited to Reaney and Wilson's Dictionary of English Surnames.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Jack
The given-name entry for Jack, tracing it to Jackin, earlier Jankin, and to John.
View source
Britannica
Thriller, recording by Michael Jackson
An encyclopedia entry on Thriller, its release date, its sales and its 1984 Grammy sweep.
View source
TIME31 December 1923
National Affairs: Jackson Day
A 1923 dispatch on the January 8 Jackson Day dinner Democrats held in Washington.
View source
CNN Politics3 March 2018
Dems in Jefferson's home state change name of Jefferson-Jackson dinner
Virginia Democrats renaming their Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, and the reasons the party gave.
View source
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