Is National Mason Day connected to the Freemasons?

No. The day is about the occupational surname for a worker in stone, recorded roughly three centuries before the word picked up its fraternal sense. Freemasonry's own governing body in England dates the first Grand Lodge to June 24, 1717, a different date and a separate history.

Why is National Mason Day on June 17?

June 17 is a fixed calendar date, so the day lands on the same square every year, and posts marking it go back several years. No source documents why this particular date was chosen.

Is this the same as Mason Day at George Mason University?

No. That Mason Day is a student carnival and concert held every April, named for the university's own namesake, and it drew a record 7,420 people in 2026.

National Mason Day

Next celebratedThursday, June 17, 2027

Boys named Mason in a single decade outnumber America's working stonemasons more than twelve to one.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated August 19, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEJune 17

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Copied word for word, year after year.

No founder, proclamation, or registry filing for National Mason Day has been identified, and no source documents why June 17 was chosen. The day travels as a dated calendar entry, with the same block of text reposted verbatim by different authors years apart.

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INTRO

Twelve thousand stonemasons and a boom in their name

National Mason Day honours a name that started life as a job description. A mason is a worker in stone.

The Social Security Administration counted 157,911 American boys given the name in one decade. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 12,100 people employed as stonemasons in the whole country.

The two figures measure different things. One is ten years of births, the other a headcount for 2024. The gap survives the caveat anyway.

Boys named for the stone trade, in one decade, outnumber America's working stonemasons by more than twelve to one. The name climbed. The trade behind it is forecast to get smaller.

ORIGINS

Mason Day history

INTRODUCTION

Before Mason was a name, it was a job. The Dictionary of American Family Names files it as an occupational name from Middle English masoun, a worker and builder in stone. Stonemasonry, the same entry adds, was a hugely important craft in the Middle Ages.

The order of the record is odd. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the English word masoun to about 1200. It notes the name already doing duty as a surname in the early 1100s.

So the label reaches the record attached to a person before it reaches the record as a word for the job.

CHAPTER 01

A second Mason, three centuries on

The word then grew a branch. The same dictionary dates the sense meaning a member of the fraternity of freemasons to the early 1400s, in Anglo-French. That is roughly three centuries after the surname.

Merriam-Webster still keeps the two apart. Lowercase mason is a skilled worker who builds by laying stone or brick. The capitalised Mason is the freemason, filed as a separate sense.

The fraternity is careful about its own past. The United Grand Lodge of England says the roots of modern Freemasonry are the subject of intense speculation. It traces its own beginnings to four London lodges that met at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern on June 24, 1717.

CHAPTER 02

America takes the job title back

The American climb is short and steep. Mason came 115th in the Social Security table for the nineties. It came 48th for the two thousands.

Then it finished fifth for the whole of the next decade. It ranked second among American boys in 2011, and again the year after.

CHAPTER 03

The day itself

The day is the thinnest part of the story. No founder, proclamation, or registry filing for National Mason Day has been found. No source explains why it sits on June 17.

What can be traced is how it moves. The same block of text turns up under different authors years apart, word for word, each June.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Mason Day

RARITY

Two of 28 top-five American names began as job titles.

Only 28 different boys' names have held a top-five spot in the United States across the last hundred years of Social Security records. Two of them started as job descriptions: Mason, a worker in stone, and Tyler, a tiler of roofs.

CRAFT

Most American masons do not work stone

Cement masons and concrete finishers account for 206,700 of America's masonry jobs, much the largest of the four specialisms the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks. Stonework, the trade the name actually describes, is one of the smallest.

ACCURACY

The day travels with a wrong number

The block of text reposted each June says an estimated 15,000 Americans share the name. Social Security counted 90,502 boys given it in the two thousands alone.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Mason Day by the Numbers

6 years: Mason in the US top five
47,313: US boys named Mason since 2020
$56,600: Median US masonry wage, 2024
675: Mason births, England and Wales 2025

TIMELINE

Timeline

Mason recorded as a surname

The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the name's use as a surname to the early twelfth century.

A second meaning appears

Mason begins to carry a fraternal sense in Anglo-French, meaning a member of the freemasons.

First Grand Lodge in London

Four London lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron Tavern on St John's Day and declared themselves a Grand Lodge.

Mason's name lands on a jar

John L. Mason patented an improvement in screw-neck bottles on November 30, fixing his surname to a household object.

Mason reaches second in America

Mason ranked second among American boys' names, its highest placing in a century of Social Security records.

A peak in England and Wales

Mason ranked thirty-first in England and Wales, given to 2,263 boys that year.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Mason Day

Check the name against the official rankings

The Social Security Administration publishes free tables of the most popular American baby names by decade. Look up where Mason lands and how far it has travelled.

PHOTOGRAPH

Photograph a piece of masonry near you

Church walls, war memorials and old civic buildings are good places to start looking. Take a picture and look at what the stone is doing that brick could not.

SEND

Send a note to every Mason you know

The day has no organiser and no official programme, so a message is the whole observance. Ask them whether they were named for the sound or for the meaning.

READ

Read the masonry trade's own job outlook

The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps a public handbook page on what masonry workers do and what they earn. It is the fastest way to see the job behind the name.

PRESERVE

Preserve something in a Mason jar

Jam, pickles or a cold brew all work, and the jar carries the surname of its patent holder rather than the trade. Label the lid with the date you sealed it.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Mason Day?

1 / 8

What did the name Mason originally describe?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing on record anywhere, so schools, banks and offices stay open. A search of the US Federal Register returns no proclamation under that name.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

17sources

11primary records

9independently dated

Primary records

U.S. Social Security Administration2025

Top 5 Names in Each of the Last 100 Years

The five most popular American boys' and girls' names for every year since 1926.