Holiday Calendar

National Jonathan Day

Next celebratedWednesday, October 7, 2026

An 1813 print shows King George III bloodied in a boxing ring, begging his opponent to stop and calling him Brother Jonathan, the figure cartoonists used for America before Uncle Sam. October 7 is the name's day.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEOctober 7
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

It spread through listings, not through an announcement.

No founder, organisation, or establishing announcement has been documented for National Jonathan Day, and no source explains why it falls on October 7. What can be traced is only its circulation, on third-party holiday listings and in individual social posts.

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INTRO

When the King of England called his enemy Jonathan

National Jonathan Day arrives carrying a strange piece of luggage. An American political print of 1813 shows King George III with a bloodied nose and a blackened eye, losing a boxing match. The king begs his opponent to stop, and calls him Brother Jonathan.

The opponent is President James Madison. The print sits in the Library of Congress, catalogued to the artist William Charles. It gloats over the American frigate Enterprise beating the British warship Boxer that September, which is where the boxing joke comes from.

The name was not Madison's. It belonged to the figure American cartoonists drew for the American public, and it held that job for decades before Uncle Sam took it over.

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ORIGINS

Jonathan Day history

INTRODUCTION

Jonathan enters the written record as a king's son caught between his father and his father's rival. He was Saul's eldest son, and his close friendship with David strained that relationship. He was killed alongside Saul in battle with the Philistines.

The name itself is a sentence. Hebrew Yehonatan, contracted to Yonatan, means Yahweh has given. Every Jonathan is carrying a claim about who did the giving.

CHAPTER 01

A name that arrived late in English

For an old name, Jonathan is a recent arrival in English. Behind the Name puts it plainly: it did not become common until after the Protestant Reformation.

The early bearer Behind the Name picks out is a satirist. Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish writer who lived from 1667 to 1745, wrote Gulliver's Travels.

CHAPTER 02

A legend attached itself to the name

The best known account of how a country ended up with the name runs through Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut and a close wartime adviser to George Washington. The story says Washington would ask a room, let us hear what Brother Jonathan has to say about this.

Connecticut does not vouch for it. Its own state museum files the story under legend and says its historical accuracy is still in doubt, then offers a documented fact instead: Trumbull was the first Connecticut governor the General Assembly styled His Excellency.

The figure faded anyway. Smithsonian Magazine wrote in 2023 that Uncle Sam did not become a household name until Thomas Nast's Harper's Weekly sketches of the late 1860s and 1870s. Unlike Jonathan, Sam came to stand for the federal government rather than the citizenry.

CHAPTER 03

An observance with nothing behind it

Against all that, the day itself is the thinnest thing here. There is no founder on record, no organisation, and no announcement. Nothing explains why October 7.

Its circulation, though, leaves a date. A third-party holiday listing carrying the day was archived in August 2022, which puts it in use at least that early. A founding year repeated widely online traces only to those same listings.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Jonathan Day Matters

PRECEDENT

One Jonathan day has a mayor, a date and a newspaper.

Orange County's mayor, Rich Crotty, declared May 1 Mr. Jonathan May Day in 2010, for the late music educator Jonathan May. The Orlando Sentinel set it down in print the following spring, which is what a documented observance leaves behind.

REACH

The name works in more than one language

Behind the Name lists Jonathan as an English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish name. The Hebrew original is still in current use in the forms Yehonatan and Yonatan.

EVIDENCE

A name day you can actually check

The Social Security Administration publishes a per-year count for every US name given to at least five babies, in files reaching back to 1880. A name day resting on that record can say something specific about the name rather than something sentimental.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Jonathan Day by the Numbers

24,349
US boys named Jonathan in 1988
3,822
US boys named Jonathan in 2025
0.22%
Jonathan's share of listed US boys, 1963 and 2025
1.30%
Jonathan's peak share of listed US boys, 1985
870,866
US boys named Jonathan since 1880

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Jonathan Day

The apple is named for its messenger

The tree grew in Philip Rick's orchard in Woodstock, New York, and Judge J. Buel first described it in 1826. It was finally named for Jonathan Hasbrouck, the man who had brought it to Buel's attention.

An 1896 catalogue sold it as the Queen's Favorite

Stark Bro's advertised the Jonathan apple under that name, stating that Queen Victoria had a carload sent over for the royal table. That line is the nursery's own sales copy, not an independent record.

Sixteen boys' names held the top 100 that long

Jonathan held a place in the American top 100 for boys across 64 unbroken years, from 1962 to 2025. Fifteen other boys' names ran the same stretch without a break.

The oldest known land animal is a Jonathan

Guinness World Records gives Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise hatched around 1832, an age of at least 194 years in 2026. His age is estimated from his being fully mature, and so at least 50, when he reached St Helena in 1882.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Jonathan Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up the 1813 print for yourself

The Library of Congress catalogue entry transcribes what each figure in the etching says. Read the speech before you look at the drawing.

TRACK

Track down a Jonathan apple

The cultivar ripens in late August to early September and keeps badly, so it turns up at farm markets and pick-your-own orchards more readily than in storage. Buy it early rather than saving it.

FOLLOW

Follow the tortoise's running record

Guinness World Records keeps a public entry for the oldest living land animal, with the age stated against the current year. Check what number it stands at now.

ASK

Ask a Jonathan where the name came from

Hardly anyone is told the story behind their own first name. This one runs from a king's son through a satirist, an apple cultivar and a tortoise.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Jonathan Day?

1 / 8

In the 1813 Library of Congress print, who is addressed as Brother Jonathan?

Answer

No. Congress lists eleven legal public holidays in 5 U.S.C. 6103 and October 7 is not among them, so in the United States it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

9sources
5primary records
8independently dated
Primary records
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division1813
A boxing match, or another bloody nose for John Bull
The 1813 etching, catalogued to William Charles, in which King George III addresses his American opponent as Brother Jonathan. The catalogue record transcribes the speech and identifies the American figure as President James Madison.
View source
Connecticut Museum of Culture and History2026-05-08
Jonathan Trumbull Sr., governor biography
Connecticut's own biography of Governor Jonathan Trumbull Sr., which sets out the Brother Jonathan naming legend and then states that its historical accuracy remains in doubt.
View source
US Social Security Administration2026-03-01
National data on the relative frequency of given names in US births
The per-year national name counts behind every figure on this page, covering 1880 through 2025. The bundled readme states the tabulation date, the ranking rule, and the five-occurrence privacy floor that defines the listed population.
View source
Guinness World Records2026
Oldest land animal (living)
The adjudicating body's own record entry for Jonathan, the Seychelles giant tortoise on St Helena, giving the 194-year figure for 2026 and explaining how the age is estimated from his maturity on arrival in 1882.
View source
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
5 U.S. Code 6103, Holidays
The statutory list of the eleven legal public holidays, whose only October entry is Columbus Day on the second Monday.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name2026-05-26
Meaning, origin and history of the name Jonathan
The onomastic entry giving the Hebrew derivation Yehonatan, the note that the name did not become common in English until after the Protestant Reformation, the languages it is used in, and the Austrian and French name days.
View source
University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management2021-09-07
Heirloom Apples Ripe for the Picking
An extension article covering the Jonathan apple's origin in Philip Rick's Woodstock orchard, its 1826 description by Judge J. Buel, its naming for Jonathan Hasbrouck, its short storage life, and the 1896 Stark Bro's advertisement.
View source
Orlando Sentinel2011-04-21
Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony wraps season with tribute to Jonathan May
Contemporary reporting that Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty declared May 1 Mr. Jonathan May Day in 2010, for the Central Florida music educator Jonathan May.
View source
Smithsonian Magazine2023-09
Meet Brother Jonathan, the Predecessor to Uncle Sam
Brandon Tensley's account of Brother Jonathan as a stand-in for the citizenry, and of Uncle Sam reaching household recognition only with Thomas Nast's Harper's Weekly sketches of the late 1860s and 1870s.
View source
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