Who created National Larry Day, and why is it on April 30?

The day is kept as a light appreciation of everyone carrying the name, and April 30 is the date every listing uses. Beyond that the record is empty: no source identifies a founder, a first year, or a reason for that particular date.

Is Larry just a nickname for Lawrence?

Not on paper. The federal name tables count Larry and Lawrence as two separate names, and Larry has been the more common of the two in every decade table since the 1930s.

Is April 30 the same as St Lawrence Day?

No. The feast of Saint Lawrence, the Roman martyr the name descends from, falls on 10 August and has done for centuries.

National Larry Day

Next celebratedFriday, April 30, 2027

The day belongs to a nickname that beat its source: a century of American records counts 800,069 Larrys against 375,643 Lawrences.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated August 30, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEApril 30

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Centuries of record for the name, none for the day.

No primary record identifies who began the observance or when. It circulates through holiday listings and a hashtag campaign, without a proclamation, resolution, registry entry, or named originator behind it, and nothing on record explains the choice of April 30.

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

INTRO

Nickname that beat Lawrence in the birth records

National Larry Day honours a name that turns up in an unlikely place: the British government's own history of Downing Street. A cat called Larry has been Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office since February 2011, the first at the address to hold the title. GOV.UK lists his duties and reports that his solution to the building's mice is still "in tactical planning stage".

That is one Larry, with one job description. The American record holds a stranger fact about the name itself. Over the last hundred years of births, parents put Larry on 800,069 Social Security card applications.

Lawrence, the full name Larry is short for, took 375,643 over the same span. The short form did not borrow the long one's popularity. It took it.

ORIGINS

Larry Day history

INTRODUCTION

The name starts in Rome, with a deacon who called the poor a treasure. Lawrence was archdeacon of the Roman church in 258, in charge of its property and its alms to the poor, orphans and widows. Told to surrender the Church's treasures, he arrived with the poor and sick in his care and presented them as the treasure.

Latin Laurentius became Old French Lorenz, then English Lawrence, a popular given name through the Middle Ages. Larry is a familiar form of that name and nothing more, until it reaches American birth records. There it does something a nickname is not supposed to do.

CHAPTER 01

Arrival at the bottom of the list

For four straight decades of American births, Larry does not appear in the Social Security Administration's most popular boys' names at all. It finally enters the top two hundred in the 1920s. The rank is 190.

Lawrence that decade sits at 36th. It has held that neighbourhood of the list since the 1900s.

CHAPTER 02

Passing the name it came from

One decade later the order flips. In the 1930s Larry ranks 30th. Lawrence has slipped to 36th, and Larry never trails it again in any later decade table.

The climb keeps going. By the 1940s Larry is the 11th most popular boys' name in the country, with Lawrence back at 31st. The 1950s table still has Larry at 18th while Lawrence sits at 42nd.

CHAPTER 03

Down to the last row

The fall is as orderly as the rise. Larry slips a little further in every decade that follows, and its final showing is the 1990s table. The rank there is 200, the last row on the list.

CHAPTER 04

A day with a much thinner record

The name is counted to the individual child, decade by decade, in a full federal sample. Its holiday has no such paperwork behind it. What April 30 actually marks is that arc: a short form that walked in at the bottom of the list and walked out from the same place.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Larry Day

RECORDS

The federal form has a first-name field, and it said Larry.

The Social Security Administration builds its tables from the first-name field of card applications, and it never merges different spellings. Every Larry in the count was registered as Larry, not as a Lawrence who happened to answer to it.

SURNAME

A surname before it was a nickname

Lawrence has been an English surname since the mid-12th century, generations before anyone was registered as Larry. So the day reaches people who inherited the name rather than people who were given it.

SCARCITY

Off the American top two hundred since the 1990s

Neither Larry nor Lawrence appears in the Social Security Administration's 200 most popular boys' names for the 2000s, the 2010s or the 2020s. April 30 marks a name whose American peak is firmly behind it.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Larry Day by the Numbers

7,219: US boys named Larry, 1920s
255,908: US boys named Larry, 1940s
245,698: US boys named Larry, 1950s
15,946: US boys named Larry, 1990s

TIMELINE

Timeline

Lawrence executed in Rome

Ordered to hand over the Church's treasures, the archdeacon of Rome presented the city's poor and sick instead, and was put to death for it.

Larry enters the American top 200

The short form appears in a Social Security Administration decade table for the first time, at rank 190.

The nickname passes the name

Larry ranks 30th for the decade against Lawrence at 36th, and stays ahead in every later decade table.

Peak at rank 11

Larry becomes the eleventh most popular boys' name in the United States for the decade.

Down to the final row

Larry appears at rank 200, its last showing in any Social Security Administration decade table.

GOOD TO KNOW

National Larry Day Around the World

Italy

Laurentum, a maritime town in Latium whose name means town of bay trees, is the source every later Larry traces back to

United Kingdom

By June 2026 the Chief Mouser at Downing Street had outlasted six prime ministers, from David Cameron to Keir Starmer

Australia and New Zealand

The phrase happy as Larry turns up in an Australian newspaper in 1857, and word historians still argue over which Larry it meant

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Larry Day

Look up your own name beside Larry's

The Social Security Administration publishes the two hundred most popular names for every decade of American births. Find the decade you were born in and see who you were sharing a classroom with, starting with the 1950s table.

GRILL

Grill something for the first famous Larry

Saint Lawrence is the protector of cooks and grill chefs, and of everyone else who works with fire. Light the barbecue and let the patronage do the rest.

ASK

Ask the Larrys you know how they were named

Family naming stories are rarely written down and are usually one question away. Ask before the day is over.

SEND

Send something to a Larry who is not expecting it

The name's largest cohorts were born in the middle of the last century. Pick one Larry and put something in the mail.

SETTLE

Settle the argument about happy as Larry

Etymologists have picked that phrase apart in detail, and the competing explanations are online in full. Read them, then stop repeating the boxer story.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Larry Day?

1 / 8

What does the Latin name Laurentius literally mean?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance and a normal working day, and no evidence of official recognition was found; a search of US presidential documents in the Federal Register returns nothing for a Larry Day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

15sources

11primary records

11independently dated

Primary records