Holiday Calendar

National Paul Day

Next celebratedTuesday, July 13, 2027

In 1975 American parents made Paul their 29th most common boys' name while French parents ranked it 122nd; by 2025 the order had flipped, France 23rd and the United States 262nd. The day marks the name in between.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEJuly 13
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

Cornwall's Paul custom falls in January, not July.

National Paul Day circulates through holiday listings, social posts and one editorial feature, and it is separate from Paul Pitcher Night, the Cornish custom kept on 24 January. No founder, organisation, proclamation or first-observance record could be located, and no source states why the day falls on 13 July.

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INTRO

Two national birth registries stopped agreeing about Paul

National Paul Day marks a name that two national birth registries no longer agree about. The clearest snapshot is 1975. American parents made Paul their 29th most common name for boys that year, while French parents ranked it 122nd.

By 2025 the order had reversed. France ranked Paul 23rd, while the United States ranked it 262nd. Both offices publish every name given to at least five boys in a year, so neither figure is an artifact of a short list.

The day itself has no author. Nobody is on record as having started it, which leaves the name to carry the occasion by itself.

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ORIGINS

Paul Day history

INTRODUCTION

The name reached the modern world through one man, born about 4 BCE in Tarsus. Britannica calls him "often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity." He probably died in Rome in the 60s CE, and the church later fixed two dates in his memory that still anchor the name's calendar across Europe.

CHAPTER 01

Two dates, neither of them in July

His conversion is marked on 25 January. The joint feast with Peter falls on 29 June. Neither of the church's dates for the name falls anywhere in July.

CHAPTER 02

Cornwall answered with broken pots

The dates did not stay purely devotional. On the eve of the conversion feast, Cornish towns kept Paul Pitcher Night by smashing pots and pitchers, a custom especially strong at Bodmin, where young people carried broken pots in procession.

Pots were lined up and pelted, or thrown at a wall with the rhyme "it's Paul's Eve and here's a heave". Cornwall For Ever, which records the custom, adds that no one really knows why the pots were broken.

CHAPTER 03

From the papacy to the birth register

Six popes afterwards took the name, from Paul I through Paul VI. The last, born Giovanni Battista Montini, led the Roman Catholic Church for fifteen years and was canonized in 2018. After him the name's center of gravity shifted from Rome to the offices that count newborns.

CHAPTER 04

The year the two records crossed

From the start of the French record until 1913, France gave the name to more boys than the United States did. For most of the century that followed, the American count led comfortably. The two lines crossed back in 2000, and France has led in every year since, twenty-six in a row.

The divergence is not a quirk of one country's method. It is what the raw French birth file and its American counterpart each report about the same name.

CHAPTER 05

A day nobody signed

National Paul Day sits on none of this. No founder, no proclamation and no first observance appear anywhere in the record, and a full-text search of the Federal Register returns nothing for the phrase. What the day has instead is use, including the Paste feature that opened by announcing the date in 2025.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The federal name record opens

Paul ranks 60th among American boys in the first year the federal name record covers.

France's last year in front

French parents choose the name more often than American parents for the last time that century.

The French low point

Paul falls to its weakest rank in the whole French national file, which runs from 1900.

The two records cross

France gives the name to more boys than the United States for the first time since 1913.

The last Pope Paul is canonized

Paul VI, who led the Roman Catholic Church for fifteen years, is made a saint.

A magazine marks the day

Paste publishes a National Paul Day feature that opens by announcing the July date.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Paul Day by the Numbers

121
Unbroken years in the US boys' top 100
1,398,293
US boys named Paul since 1880
146 of 146
US boys' year files listing Paul
12th
Best US boys' rank for Paul, 1916

GOOD TO KNOW

National Paul Day Around the World

Sweden

keeps Paul's name day on 25 January

Norway

also 25 January, the conversion date

Finland

25 January again, one of four countries on that date

Estonia

25 January, the fourth of that group

France

29 June, the joint feast with Peter

Germany

29 June, the same joint feast

Austria

three separate dates: 6 February, 29 June and 19 October

Croatia

18 June, on its own

Romania

3 June, the earliest of the June dates

Denmark

10 January, the earliest of these dates

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Paul Day

Four strangers named Paul O'Sullivan started a band

One of them told CBS News he had been "indiscriminately adding Paul O'Sullivans on Facebook" when he noticed they were all musicians. The four recruited each other across Baltimore, Manchester, Pennsylvania and Rotterdam, and recorded an album remotely during lockdown.

Paul has been an American girl's name too

The federal file records 5,842 girls named Paul between 1880 and 2025. The name turns up in the girls' data in 118 of those 146 years.

France put the name back in its top twelve

Paul returned to 12th place in France in 2015, its strongest showing there since 1922.

Two more popes chose a compound version

John Paul I and John Paul II took a papal name that is formally distinct from Paul. That is why the count of popes named Paul stops at six rather than eight.

France rounds every name count to a multiple of five

All 724,645 values in the French national name file end in a five or a zero, because the agency rounds them. The American file publishes exact birth counts instead.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Paul Day

REGISTRIES

Two registries, one name, opposite answers.

France and the United States keep the same kind of birth record and now reach opposite conclusions about Paul. A day on the name is a reason to read both files rather than the nearer one.

LANGUAGE

The meaning is smaller than people think

Lewis and Short gloss the Latin paulus only as little or small, with no sense of humble or modest that popular name guides often attach to it. The day is a chance to check the gloss against the dictionary itself.

CALENDAR

It sits on ground the tradition left empty

Behind the Name's tables place Paul's name days on seven separate dates across ten European countries, and not one of them falls in July. This observance sits on a date those tables do not use.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Paul Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Call the Pauls you know

A name day only works if somebody actually uses it. Pick up the phone instead of posting.

LOOK

Look up the name in the federal file

The Social Security Administration puts its full name data online, year by year. Start with the national data files and find your own birth year.

COMPARE

Compare two countries on the same name

France's statistics office publishes its own birth-name file too. Put the INSEE file beside the American one and watch the two curves separate.

READ

Read the Latin entry for yourself

Perseus hosts the full text of Lewis and Short, the standard Latin dictionary. Look up paulus and see exactly which senses it does and does not give.

ADOPT

Adopt a European name day instead

Several European countries already keep a name day for Paul, on dates of their own. Pick whichever one falls nearest a Paul in your life and use that.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Paul Day?

1 / 8

What does the Latin adjective behind the name Paul actually mean?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing that could be located, so offices, banks and schools stay open.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

12sources
5primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration2025
Beyond the Top 1000 Names: national data files
Every name given to five or more American babies each year since 1880, with exact counts.
View source
INSEE2026
Fichier des prenoms, national file
French births by first name from 1900 onward, with the agency's own published rank column.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration
Popular Names by Birth Decade, 1960s
The agency's printed decade rankings, which show how it numbers names that tie exactly.
View source
Federal Register
Document full-text search API
Searchable text of US federal documents, returning nothing for this day's name.
View source
Perseus Digital Library1879
Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary: paulus
The standard Latin lexicon entry glossing paulus as little or small.
View source
Additional coverage
Encyclopaedia Britannica
St. Paul the Apostle
Life, dates and feast days of the apostle whose name the day carries.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
St. Paul VI
The last pope to take the name, his fifteen-year reign and his canonization.
View source
New Advent
Catholic Encyclopedia: List of Popes
The full papal list, enumerating the six popes who took the name Paul.
View source
Behind the Name
Name Days for the name Paul
Country-by-country name days for Paul, spread across seven separate dates.
View source
CBS News2021-01-12
Four strangers all named Paul O'Sullivan form a band
How four musicians sharing one name found each other and recorded together.
View source
Cornwall For Ever
Paul Pitcher Night
The Cornish pot-smashing custom kept on the eve of Paul's conversion feast.
View source
Paste Magazine2025-07
10 Songs About Paul, Ranked
A music magazine's 2025 feature marking the day, opening on the July date.
View source
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