Holiday Calendar

National Rita Day

Next celebratedWednesday, March 3, 2027

Rita reached its American high point in the year Rita Hayworth turned twelve and was still Margarita Carmen Cansino. Her first film was years away, so Hollywood caught up with the name instead of making it.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEMarch 3
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

March 3 matches none of the fifteen Rita name days.

The March 3 date for National Rita Day is attested on holiday-listing sites at least as far back as August 2022, and it matches none of the fifteen national Rita name days on record, which cluster on May 22. No founder, proclamation or establishment record has been located, and no United States federal document has carried the phrase.

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

Hollywood's Ritas both arrived after the peak

National Rita Day belongs to a name whose American peak came before Hollywood found it. The federal name files put that peak in 1930. That autumn Rita Hayworth turned 12.

She was still Margarita Carmen Cansino. Her first film would not arrive until 1935. Gilda came in 1946.

The peak is a precise figure: 0.48582% of the girls listed in the Social Security Administration's file for that year. No year since has matched it. The familiar story, that Hollywood made the name popular, has the order wrong.

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ORIGINS

Rita Day history

INTRODUCTION

Rita began as an ending. Behind the Name defines it as the short form of Margherita, and of other names that finish in the same four letters.

One case is documented by the Holy See itself. Vatican News introduces her without ceremony: Margherita Lotti, "Rita" for short, born at Roccaporena in Umbria.

CHAPTER 01

The nun who kept the nickname

She was widowed when her husband was murdered, then lost both sons to illness. The Augustinian nuns of Cascia refused her at first, and took her in at 36. The Vatican City State's own account puts her canonization at 24 May 1900, under Pope Leo XIII.

CHAPTER 02

Two Ritas who were not born Rita

Rita Hayworth was born in Brooklyn in 1918. She reached the screen billed as Rita Cansino, in Under the Pampas Moon, and took the name Hayworth on her first husband's advice.

Her birth name, Margarita Carmen Cansino, carries the etymology in one line. Margarita is the Latin form of Margaret, from the Greek margarites, meaning pearl, and Rita is the end of it.

Rita Moreno was not christened Rita either. She was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, in 1931, and the National Archives calls her the first Hispanic actress to win an Academy Award.

CHAPTER 03

The long fade, and a day with no author

The American curve had turned down well before either woman was famous. Rita's share of listed girls slipped under its own 1880 level. That happened in 1993, and it has stayed under ever since.

National Rita Day arrives at the end of that arc with nothing behind it. No founder or establishing record has been located, and the March 3 date matches none of the name days Europe already keeps for the name.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Rita Day

EVIDENCE

Shirley hit second place in 1935. Rita never spiked at all.

Shirley climbed from ninth to second among American girls' names in the two years around Shirley Temple's breakthrough, reaching 4.04033% of all girls listed in 1935. Rita's curve carries no spike of that kind, which is why the Hollywood story does not survive contact with the file.

SCALE

A long run that turns out to be ordinary

Rita held a place in the top 1,000 girls' names for 123 straight years, from 1880 through 2002, which sounds rare and is not: 158 girls' names have an unbroken run at least that long. 98 of them have never left the list in 146 years.

DIVERGENCE

Rita and Margarita are not one name

Americans registered 284,452 girls as Rita against 40,219 as Margarita, roughly seven to one, and the Social Security Administration counts them as the separate names they are. Margarita's own share of listed girls peaked in 1976, and its best rank ever was 334th.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Rita Day by the Numbers

146 of 146
SSA year files that list Rita
285,230
US births named Rita since 1880
778
US boys named Rita, 1913 to 1984
174
US girls named Rita in 2025
0
Federal Register entries for National Rita Day

TIMELINE

Timeline

Leo XIII canonizes Rita of Cascia

The Vatican City State dates the canonization to 24 May, long after Urban VIII opened her beatification in 1626.

Margarita Carmen Cansino is born

The future Rita Hayworth arrives in Brooklyn under the long form of the name, Margarita.

Rita's best rank among US girls

The name reaches 42nd among American girls' names, its highest position in the whole 146-year record.

Rita Cansino reaches the screen

Britannica records her first film as Under the Pampas Moon, five years after the name had already peaked.

The most Ritas in one year

6,653 American girls are named Rita, the highest single-year count in the file, on a far larger birth cohort.

Rita leaves the top 1,000

Just 199 American girls are named Rita, and the name drops out of the top 1,000, never to return.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Rita Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Ask a Rita what her name is short for

Many of them were registered as Rita from birth, not shortened from anything, so the honest answer is often nothing. The federal file records the name as it was given, so it cannot settle the question either.

LOOK

Look the name up in the federal name files

The Social Security Administration publishes every US name given at least five times in a year, back to 1880. Its data page explains the five-occurrence cutoff that decides which names appear at all.

PICK

Pick which Rita day your household keeps

Behind the Name lists fifteen national Rita name days across thirteen countries, nine of them on 22 May. A household with a Rita in it can keep whichever one fits its own roots.

SEND

Send a note to a Rita you know

A message on the day costs less than five minutes and lands better than a social media tag. Nothing about the observance is organised, so it is whatever people make of it.

TRACE

Trace the spellings that did not last

The federal files also record 1,364 girls named Reita and 159 named Ritta. No reference work defines either spelling, so they are counted as spellings and nothing more.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Rita Day?

1 / 8

In which year did Rita reach its highest share of listed US girls' births?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing, and the Federal Register's full-text index returns zero documents for the phrase.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

11sources
5primary records
3independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration2025
Popular Baby Names: Beyond the Top 1000 Names
The national name files behind every count here, and the five-occurrence cutoff.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration
Top Names of the 1960s
SSA's own published decade ranking, ties and all.
View source
Office of the Federal Register
Federal Register document search: "National Rita Day"
A live full-text search of every federal document, returning a count of zero.
View source
Vatican City State2010
May 22: Saint Rita of Cascia
The canonization of 24 May 1900 under Leo XIII, and the earlier beatification steps.
View source
Vatican News
St. Rita of Cascia, Agostinian
The Holy See's life of the saint, opening on the name Margherita Lotti and the short form Rita.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Rita: meaning, origin and history
Defines Rita as the short form of Margherita and of other names ending in rita.
View source
Behind the Name
Name Days for the name Rita
Fifteen national Rita name days across thirteen countries, nine of them on 22 May.
View source
Behind the Name
Margarita: meaning, origin and history
Margarita as the Latin form of Margaret, from the Greek margarites, meaning pearl.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Rita Hayworth
Her original name, her 1918 Brooklyn birth, and her first films billed as Rita Cansino.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Rita Moreno
Born in Humacao, Puerto Rico in 1931, and the holder of an EGOT.
View source
U.S. National Archives2014-10-10
Rita Moreno, first Hispanic actress to win the Academy Award
The National Archives on Moreno's win and the honors that followed it.
View source
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