Holiday Calendar

National James Day

Next celebratedSunday, April 11, 2027

A name-day observance on April 11 honoring people named James and the long cultural history of the name.

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Last updated February 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEApril 11
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

A name day with no documented author.

No documented founder or formal establishment record has been identified for National James Day. The observance circulates on informal holiday-listing sites and social media on April 11, with no traceable institutional or individual creator.

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

The plainest name a spy could wear

When Ian Fleming needed a name for his secret agent, he went looking for the dullest one he could find. He wanted, in his own words, "the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name" imaginable, and he lifted it from the spine of a bird book on his shelf. The author was a real ornithologist named James Bond.

That is the strange thing about the name being honored on April 11. It reads as ordinary because it has been everywhere for so long. James was the most popular boys' name in America for thirteen years running, the kind of streak almost no name holds.

The day itself is the opposite of well documented. No founder, no proclamation, and no founding year are on record for National James Day. The name it celebrates, by contrast, traces all the way back to a Hebrew patriarch.

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ORIGINS

James Day history

INTRODUCTION

James does not begin as James. It is the English form of the Late Latin name Iacomus, a variant of the Biblical Latin Iacobus, which itself comes from the Hebrew name Yaʿaqov, the name we also spell as Jacob.

So James and Jacob are the same name. They split when one Latin branch softened Iacobus into Iacomus, and English took that softer form. Same root, two destinations: one stayed close to Jacob, the other drifted all the way to James.

CHAPTER 01

Three biblical Jameses

The name spread through the early church on the strength of the men who carried it. The New Testament holds two apostles named James, James the Great and James the Less. A third James, the brother of Jesus, led the first Christian community in Jerusalem.

James the Great was the first of them to die. He was killed by the sword in Jerusalem around AD 44. His feast was later fixed on July 25, which is why that summer date, not April, belongs to St. James.

CHAPTER 02

The king who put his name on a Bible

The name's biggest moment came from a Scottish crown. James VI became King of Scotland in 1567, when he was barely a year old. He later inherited the English throne as James I in 1603, uniting the two crowns under one head.

In 1604 he gathered scholars at Hampton Court and commissioned a new English Bible. The result, published in 1611, became the King James Version, one of the most influential books ever printed in English. His name has ridden on its cover for four centuries.

CHAPTER 03

A century at the top

By the time the United States started counting baby names in 1880, James was already near the top, and it never really left. Robert and later Michael eventually pushed past it, but James kept a place in the upper tier decade after decade.

Across the last hundred years it is still the most popular American boys' name of all, given to more than 4.5 million boys in that rolling window. No one knows who chose April 11 for it, but the name needs no introduction.

TIMELINE

Timeline

James the Great is martyred

The apostle James, son of Zebedee, is killed by the sword in Jerusalem under Herod Agrippa, the earliest dated James in the Christian record.

A 13-month-old king

James VI becomes King of Scotland as an infant, beginning a reign that would later reshape the English language.

Two crowns, one James

James VI inherits the English throne as James I, uniting the Scottish and English crowns under a single ruler.

The King James Bible appears

The Authorized Version, commissioned by the king at the 1604 Hampton Court Conference, is published and carries his name into history.

James hits number one

James becomes the most popular boys' name in the United States and holds the top spot for thirteen consecutive years.

Overtaken, but not gone

After thirteen years at the top, James is passed by Robert and then Michael, yet it stays firmly in the upper tier.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National James Day

Six presidents have answered to James

James Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter all carried it, making James the most common first name among US presidents.

The name means a heel-grabber

The Hebrew root behind James means "one that takes by the heel," a supplanter, a nod to the patriarch Jacob, who was born gripping his twin Esau's heel.

It topped the century chart while dipping to 19th

Even as James ranked as the most popular American boys' name of the last hundred years, the same Social Security record shows it slipping as low as 19th in individual years along the way.

Millions of Americans still answer to it

Roughly 3.4 million living Americans carried the first name James as of 2021, the second most common male first name among people alive in the country.

ORIGINS

James Day history

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National James Day

ENDURANCE

Number one in 1940 and still top ten today.

Most chart-topping names burn out within a generation, yet James reached number one in 1940 and is still inside the top ten of American boys' names today, more than a century after its first peak. A name day for James is a tribute to staying power that almost no other name can claim.

HERITAGE

It links a common name to an uncommon past

A name that reads as plain today carries a documented lineage few given names can match, running unbroken from an ancient Hebrew root into modern birth records. Marking the day is a reminder that an everyday name can hold thousands of years inside it.

LANGUAGE

It honors a name woven into English itself

The King James Version shaped phrases and rhythms that still echo through English four centuries on. Celebrating the name is a quiet nod to a book, and a king, that helped set the language we read in.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National James Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Reach out to a James in your life

With millions of Jameses, Jimmys, Jamies, and Jacobs around, the odds are good you know one. A short message is the entire point of a name day.

TRACE

Trace the name to its Hebrew root

Read the entry for James on Behind the Name to follow the path from Yaʿaqov through Latin Iacomus to the English James. The trail explains why James and Jacob are really the same name.

OPEN

Open a King James Bible

Pick up the 1611 translation that carries the name and read a passage aloud. Its cadence has shaped English prose for four hundred years.

PULL

Pull up your own name's history

The Social Security data behind James's century-long run covers thousands of names. Look up your own to see whether it surged, faded, or simply held.

WATCH

Watch a famous James in action

From the screen spy to the apostles in art, the name has filled centuries of stories. Spend the evening with one of them and trace where the name turns up.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National James Day?

1 / 8

The English name James traces back to which Hebrew name?

Answer

No. It is an informal, unofficial observance, not a public or federal holiday, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

9sources
2primary records
2independently dated
Primary records
US Social Security Administration2025
Top Names Over the Last 100 Years
Ranks James the most popular US boys' name of the last century, given to over 4.5 million boys.
View source
US Social Security Administration2025
Top 5 Names in Each of the Last 100 Years
Year-by-year top names showing James at number one every year from 1940 to 1952.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
James: meaning, origin and history
Traces James from Hebrew Yaʿaqov through Late Latin Iacomus and lists the biblical Jameses.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
James (name origin and meaning)
Documents the Hebrew root meaning supplanter and the Latin Jacobus to Jacomus shift.
View source
Wikipedia
James VI and I
The king's accession dates and his sponsorship of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible.
View source
Wikipedia
James, son of Zebedee
Covers the apostle's martyrdom around AD 44 and his July 25 feast day.
View source
Wikipedia
List of presidents of the United States
The presidential roster confirming six presidents whose first name is James.
View source
Wikipedia
James Bond (literary character)
Ian Fleming's account of borrowing the plain name from ornithologist James Bond.
View source
Wikipedia
James (given name)
Reports about 3.4 million living Americans named James as of 2021.
View source
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