Holiday Calendar

National Katherine Day

Next celebratedWednesday, December 2, 2026

The saint behind the name was struck from the Roman calendar in 1969 for want of authentic biographical material, and put back in 2002. The 2 December observance keeps the name either way.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 2
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

The full spelling, given a December date of its own.

No founder, establishing act, or registration for National Katherine Day has been identified, and no source explains the December 2 date. The day circulates through online holiday listings and event directories, which is the only documented trace of it.

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

One broken wheel: a torture device, a firework, a cartwheel

National Katherine Day honors a name that is also, in three separate senses, an ordinary English noun. Merriam-Webster still defines a Catherine wheel as a wheel with spikes projecting from the rim, as a firework, and as a cartwheel.

All three senses come from one legend, and the legend is not solid ground. Britannica records that Catherine of Alexandria is not mentioned before the 9th century, and that her historicity is doubtful.

The name survived the doubt better than the woman did. Two spellings of it are still in ordinary use, and the national registers on either side of the Atlantic no longer agree on which one wins.

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ORIGINS

Katherine Day history

INTRODUCTION

Nobody is certain what the name means. Behind the Name calls the etymology of the Greek original debated, and lays out four candidate derivations. One of them is aikia, the Greek word for torture.

The woman who carried the name was venerated first in Syria. Returning crusaders brought it into Western Europe, and it has been common in England since the 12th century. Behind the Name calls her semi-legendary.

CHAPTER 01

Every clerk spelled it differently

The English record starts early and stays untidy. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources cites a Latin entry from 1185, spelling it Katerina. After that, clerks wrote it however it sounded to them.

A single English source from 1300 runs through Katerina, then Katharina, then Katherina. Katherine and Catherine settled as the standard pair only in the later Middle Ages. The early modern records went on regardless, carrying Katturne, Kateran and Chatery.

CHAPTER 02

A saint deleted, then restored

Paul VI's revised calendar of 1969 dropped dozens of saints, Catherine among them. The National Catholic Register gives the reason as the relative sparseness of authentic biographical material.

John Paul II had gone to her monastery in Sinai in 2000, where the abbot declined to hold a joint prayer service. He put her back on the Universal Roman Calendar in 2002, as a gesture to Orthodox Christians. The Register calls that reversal quite rare in history.

CHAPTER 03

The day itself

National Katherine Day belongs to none of that record. Clerks, tax collectors and registrars left a long trail for the name; the observance that honors it left none. That gap is the honest shape of the day.

The historic name day for this family of names is 25 November, the feast of Catherine of Alexandria. The December observance is a separate and much younger thing.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A martyr at Alexandria

Legend places the death of Catherine of Alexandria in Egypt in the early fourth century.

Earliest English record cited

A Latin record from England spells the name Katerina, the oldest English citation in the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources.

Fourteenth among women's names

In George Redmonds's sample of the poll-tax rolls of ten English counties, Katherine ranks fourteenth, behind Alice, Agnes and Joan.

Britain loses eleven days

The switch to the Gregorian calendar left the feast with two English dates, 25 November and an Old Style 6 December.

Rome drops her from the calendar

Paul VI's revised liturgical calendar removed dozens of saints, Catherine among them, for want of authentic biographical material.

Rome puts her back

John Paul II restored her to the Universal Roman Calendar, a reversal the National Catholic Register calls quite rare in history.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Katherine Day Matters

SPELLING

Ninety-three years for Catherine. Fifty-three, so far, for Katherine.

In the American record, which begins in 1880, Catherine outranked Katherine every year through 1972, a run of 93 years. Katherine has outranked Catherine in every year of the 53 since, while the England and Wales register still puts Catherine ahead.

TRADES

A wheel that became a job description

Because the wheel is her attribute, Catherine became the patron of wheelwrights, and by extension of carpenters, ropemakers and spinners. Through the spinners the same patronage extended across textile production, so an instrument of execution ended up as a trade badge.

BEARERS

Both spellings run through the modern record

NASA spells its Langley mathematician Katherine Johnson, who checked the computers' orbital figures by hand before John Glenn would fly. The royal household spells the Princess of Wales as Catherine, born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Katherine Day by the Numbers

1.78%
Katherine's share, English tax rolls 1377-1381
590th
Catherine's rank, England and Wales 2025
872nd
Katherine's rank, England and Wales 2025
10,675
US girls named Katherine, 2020-2025

GOOD TO KNOW

National Katherine Day Around the World

France

Paris fashion workshops still keep the feast. An unmarried 25-year-old seamstress or milliner becomes a Catherinette and is crowned with an extraordinary hat in green and yellow, the saint's colors for hope and scholarship.

England

Midlands lacemakers kept it as Cattern. A Notes and Queries item of 1862 reported that in Buckinghamshire, on Cattern Day, these hard-working people hold merry-makings, eat a sort of cakes they call wigs, and drink ale.

Egypt

The monastery at the foot of Mount Horeb that carries her name was founded in the 6th century and is, by UNESCO's citation, the oldest Christian monastery still in use for its initial function.

Ireland and Wales

The same Greek root branched rather than merged. Irish produced Caitlin and Caitriona, Welsh produced Catrin, and the family runs on through Aikaterini in Greek, Ekaterina in Russian and Kataraina in Maori.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Katherine means "pure".

The truth

The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources calls the Greek original of uncertain origin and states that it is unrelated to katharos, the Greek word for pure. Behind the Name adds that the association came later, and that the Latin spelling was changed from Katerina to Katharina to reflect it, so the spelling was altered to fit the meaning rather than the other way round.

The myth

Catherine of Aragon introduced lacemaking to Bedfordshire.

The truth

The Lace in Context research project traces the claim to Mrs Bury Palliser's 1865 book A History of Lace and concludes that it has no basis in any oral tradition linking that queen to the industry's beginnings.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Katherine Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up both spellings in a national register

The Office for National Statistics publishes the full ranking of girls' names registered in England and Wales, running far below the familiar top of the list. Find where Catherine and Katherine sit, then compare them with the family's shorter forms.

ASK

Ask a Katherine which spelling her documents use

Plenty of people assume every Katherine is really a Catherine, or the reverse. The person in front of you can settle it in one sentence.

READ

Read the martyr's entry before repeating what the name means

The encyclopedia entry runs from the wheel to the beheading, and it hedges almost every step. Reading it is a quick lesson in how much of a famous name rests on legend.

FOLLOW

Follow the name into another language

Behind the Name lists the forms this one root took in dozens of languages, from Katarzyna in Polish to Catalina in Spanish. Pick the one from a language you are learning and see how far it has drifted.

FOLLOW

Follow the saint into other people's stories

Joan of Arc said Catherine's was among the heavenly voices that spoke to her before she led the French army. A name this old keeps surfacing in records that have nothing to do with naming.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Katherine Day?

1 / 8

Which of these is still a dictionary sense of "Catherine wheel"?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance rather than a public holiday, so it is a normal working day, and no United States presidential document naming a Katherine Day appears in the Federal Register.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

16sources
8primary records
10independently dated
Primary records
Office for National Statistics2025
Baby names for girls in England and Wales, 2025 edition
The full 2025 registry ranking of girls' names in England and Wales, with counts.
View source
Social Security AdministrationData as of March 2026
Top names of the period 2020 - 2025
The 200 most common US baby names for births in 2020 to 2025, with counts.
View source
Merriam-WebsterUpdated 7 July 2026
Catherine wheel
The dictionary entry giving three current senses of the term.
View source
Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources
Katherine
A scholarly edition of dated medieval attestations, with a headnote on the disputed Greek origin.
View source
UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Saint Catherine Area
The World Heritage citation for the Sinai monastery and the 60,100-hectare area around it.
View source
NASA
Katherine Johnson Biography
The agency's life of the Langley mathematician, from her 1953 hiring to John Glenn's orbital flight.
View source
The Royal Family
The Princess of Wales
The household's official page, giving her name as Catherine Elizabeth Middleton.
View source
Federal RegisterQueried 19 August 2026
Presidential documents search, term Katherine Day
A search of US proclamations, executive orders and notices returning no Katherine Day.
View source
Additional coverage
Encyclopaedia BritannicaLast updated 23 June 2026
St. Catherine of Alexandria
The martyr's legend, her 25 November feast, the broken wheel, and the doubt over her historicity.
View source
Behind the NameEntry updated 26 May 2026
Katherine
The four competing Greek derivations, the crusader transmission, and the forms the name took by language.
View source
Behind the NameSource book 2004
Common Names for Adults in Late Medieval England 1377-1381
Ranked names from George Redmonds's sample of the poll-tax rolls of ten English counties.
View source
Behind the NameSeries through 2025
Popularity for the name Catherine, United States
The annual American rank for Catherine, running unbroken from 1880 to 2025.
View source
Behind the NameSeries through 2025
Popularity for the name Katherine, United States
The matching annual American rank for Katherine, the other half of the comparison.
View source
National Catholic Register
Why John Paul II Restored This Saint to the Calendar
An account of the 1969 removal of Catherine of Alexandria and her restoration in 2002.
View source
Lace in Context25 November 2015
Of Saints, Queens and 'Cattern Cakes': Saint Catherine's Day, the Lacemakers' Holiday
A footnoted study of Cattern Day in the English Midlands and the invented Catherine of Aragon lace legend.
View source
ICOM Costume Committee
Catherinettes. A textile custom on the 25th of november
Dorothea Nicolai on the Paris fashion trade's Catherinette hats and the phrase coiffer Sainte Catherine.
View source
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