Is National Mark Day a public holiday?

No. USAGov lists 12 federal holidays in the United States and this is not one of them, and no statute, proclamation or resolution establishing it was found.

Who started National Mark Day and why is it on October 18?

Name days for Mark are an old European tradition fixed to April 25, and this October date belongs to a separate, modern observance. No source names a founder, a first year, or a reason for October 18.

What does the name Mark mean?

Mark is the English form of the Latin Marcus, a Roman first name that Etymonline says is traditionally said to be related to Mars, the god of war. Behind the Name puts it no more strongly than probably, and Mars itself is described as a name of unknown origin.

National Mark Day

Next celebratedSunday, October 18, 2026

Mark ranked sixth among American boys in the 1960s and has since dropped out of the top two hundred. October 18 arrives on the far side of that fall, and it is neither of Saint Mark's two feast days.

See how to celebrate

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEOctober 18

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Everything here is documented except the observance itself.

No founder, founding organization, or first observance is documented for National Mark Day. A Federal Register search for the exact phrase returns nothing, no government record names it, and the only inception year in circulation sits on a holiday-listing site whose sole cited reference is another such site.

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INTRO

Mark ranked sixth in America and then fell off the list

Mark ranked sixth among American boys' names across the 1960s. In the Social Security Administration's table for the 2020s so far, it no longer appears among the two hundred most popular. National Mark Day arrives on the far side of that fall.

Two Mark days are easy to confuse, so the difference is worth settling early. The feast of Saint Mark is April 25 in the Western church. The Eastern date is September 23, and this observance is neither.

The name behind it is documented in unusual depth. It runs from a Roman first name of contested meaning to a body carried into Venice in 828, and on into a century of American birth records.

ORIGINS

Mark Day history

INTRODUCTION

Ask what Mark means and the answer comes back fast and confident: warlike, dedicated to Mars. Ask the reference works and the confidence drains out of it.

The Online Etymology Dictionary records Marcus as a Roman first name "traditionally said to be related to" the god of war. Behind the Name goes only as far as "probably." Mars itself, the same dictionary notes, is a name of unknown origin.

CHAPTER 01

A body arrives in Venice

The name's largest moment was not linguistic. The Basilica di San Marco's own account dates it to the last day of January in 828, when relics of Saint Mark reached Venice from Alexandria. Doge Giustiniano Particiaco received them.

Venice began a church for them the following year and consecrated it in 832. Saint Mark replaced Saint Theodore as the city's patron. The building stayed the doge's private chapel until 1807.

The arrangement was not final. Pope Paul VI recalled the reversal in a later address. Relics of the evangelist went back from Venice to the Church of Alexandria in 1968.

CHAPTER 02

English takes its time

For all that, English was slow to adopt it. Behind the Name records that Mark was in use during the Middle Ages but not common in the English-speaking world until the 1800s, when it began appearing alongside the classical Marcus. The American peak came later still.

CHAPTER 03

Where the trail stops

Which leaves October 18. A Federal Register search for the exact phrase returns nothing. The founder, the first observance and the choice of date are all missing from the record.

The name arrives here carrying 828, a basilica and a papal address. The day arrives carrying a date.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The chair of Mark

From the fourth century the see of Alexandria has been called cathedra Marci, the chair of Mark.

Relics reach Venice

The Basilica di San Marco dates the arrival of Saint Mark's relics from Alexandria to 31 January of that year.

A church begun for a body

Venice started the first San Marco to hold the remains and consecrated it in 832.

San Marco becomes a cathedral

Until then the building had served as the doge's private chapel rather than the cathedral church of Venice.

Relics travel back to Egypt

Pope Paul VI later recalled that relics of the evangelist returned from Venice to the Church of Alexandria that year.

Congress names a Mark day

House Joint Resolution 259 designated November 30 as National Mark Twain Day, a different observance for a different Mark.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Mark Day Matters

EVIDENCE

One line of greeting is the only certain fact about the man.

Encyclopaedia Britannica reports that data on Saint Mark's life in the New Testament are fragmentary and that the only unquestionably reliable information is a greeting in Philemon 24, sent from Rome to the Christians of Colossae. The name he lent to a basilica, and the symbol he lent to a republic, are recorded far more precisely than the man himself.

LANGUAGE

A Roman first name that never went out of service

Behind the Name records Marcus as among the most popular of the Roman praenomina, borne by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aurelius. Mark is the English form of that same name, and it was still being given to American boys in the 2010s.

EMBLEM

A saint's symbol became a state's

The winged lion attached to Mark became the official symbol of the Venetian Republic, and the Basilica di San Marco describes its book as open in peacetime on the words Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus, peace to you Mark my evangelist. In wartime the same lion was shown gripping a sword.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Mark Day by the Numbers

441,390: US boys named Mark in the 1960s
1,351,326: US boys named Mark since 1926
15th: Mark's all-time US rank for boys
21,108: US boys named Mark in the 2010s

GOOD TO KNOW

National Mark Day Around the World

Sweden

Markus falls on April 25, the one date all seventeen countries share, as it does in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia and Norway

Poland

eleven separate name days for Marek, running from March 13 to November 22, far more than any other country listed

Croatia

Marko is listed three times, adding September 7 and October 22

Spain

Marcos is kept twice, with June 18 as the second date

Latvia

Mareks sits on its own on June 30, the one listed form with no April date

Romania

Marcu carries the shared date and a second one on March 29

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Mark Day

Check which Mark day your Mark keeps

Seventeen countries list a form of the name on April 25, so a Mark with Polish, Italian, Hungarian or Swedish family may already have a date. Ask before you assume October 18 is the one that counts.

LOOK

Look the name up in the federal data

The Social Security Administration publishes free decade tables of the most popular US names. Find the decade a Mark you know was born in and see where the name sat that decade.

READ

Read the shortest of the four gospels

The Basilica di San Marco describes the second gospel as the shortest of the four, at sixteen chapters. It is a short evening's reading, and the text the whole Venetian story is built on.

Go looking for a winged lion

Mark's symbol is the lion, and the winged version turns up wherever Venice reached. Museum collections, old maps and Venetian architecture put it in plain sight once you know to look.

WRITE

Write to a Mark who is not expecting it

The observance runs entirely on individuals rather than on any organizing body. A note to one person named Mark is the whole mechanism.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Mark Day?

1 / 8

Which city's official emblem grew out of Saint Mark's symbol?

Answer

No. The feast of Saint Mark is April 25 in the Western church and September 23 in the East, while this observance falls on October 18.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

19sources

8primary records

3independently dated

Primary records