Holiday Calendar

National Russell Day

Next celebratedFriday, July 23, 2027

The Latin root for reddish-brown that gave English Russell also surfaces as Rossi in Italian, Rojas in Spanish, Roux in French and Roxas in Filipino. July 23 belongs to everyone carrying the English branch.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEJuly 23
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

A Norman surname that English kept and turned into a first name.

The day attaches to July 23 and to a given name that entered English as a Norman surname. Its own beginnings are unrecorded: no founder, sponsoring body or first observance has been traced, and the day appears in no Federal Register document.

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INTRO

Russell, Rossi and Rojas grew from the same root

Russell is a colour. Behind the Name traces it to an English surname built from a Norman French nickname meaning "little red one", and keeps the careful word: it was perhaps first given to a person with red hair.

Follow that root and the family turns out to be enormous. The word underneath is the Latin russus, "red, reddish-brown", and the same root surfaces as Rossi and Russo in Italian, Rojas and Rojo in Spanish, Roux in French, and Roxas in Filipino.

National Russell Day belongs to everyone carrying the English branch of that family. The name sounds thoroughly English. Its paperwork says otherwise.

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ORIGINS

Russell Day history

CHAPTER 01

Ninety-four years without a gap

The American name files open in 1880. Since then 395 boys' names have touched the top 100. Only 23 of them held their place, unbroken, for longer than Russell held his.

The name reached the American top 100 for boys in 1889. It did not leave again until 1982. Ninety-four consecutive years on the Social Security Administration's own name files is the 24th longest unbroken run among boys' names, and no other name's run is exactly that long.

Its sharpest showing came early. In 1904 Russell placed 48th, and it has never climbed that high again.

CHAPTER 02

The peak that arrived late

Rank and headcount then pulled apart, which is the strange part of the record. Russell's most crowded year was 1960, when the register logged 7,487 American boys with the name. By then it had already slipped to 56th.

Fifty-six years separate the highest rank from the highest headcount. A name can be handed to more children than ever before and still be losing ground, because a rank does not answer how many. It answers how many compared with everyone else.

Then the decline came quickly. Russell placed 97th in 1982. It fell to 104th the year after and has stayed outside the top 100 ever since.

CHAPTER 03

Still on the list, still unsigned

The slide stopped and reversed. In 2025 Russell ranked 345th, its best placing since 2003, on the largest headcount it had recorded since the late 1990s.

So the name keeps an unusually complete paper trail. The day keeps none. Nobody has been identified as its author, no organisation claims it, and it sits in the ordinary company of name days that circulate without one.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Russell Day by the Numbers

359,780
American boys named Russell since 1880
944
American boys named Russell in 2025
32
Boys named Russell registered in England and Wales, 2025
146 of 146
Years Russell held the US top 500

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Russell Day

A Russell won a Nobel for something other than words

Russell A. Hulse, who carries it as a first name, shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, work the Nobel Foundation credits with opening new possibilities for the study of gravitation.

One country parson, two recognised dog breeds

The American Kennel Club says the Russell Terrier and the Parson Russell Terrier share a common heritage as fox-working dogs from the kennels of Rev. John 'The Sporting Parson' Russell of the mid-1800s. The Russell Terrier is the AKC's 175th breed.

Every rival spelling died and this one did not

In the American register, Russel last appeared in the top 1000 in 1984, Rusty in 1995 and Russ in 1973. All three have gone. Russell has not missed a year since the files begin.

Seventy-seven names held the top 500 every single year

Staying inside the top 500 in all 146 years from 1880 to 2025 is rarer than it sounds. Of every boy's name the American files have ever listed, 77 managed it, and Russell is one of the 77.

A governor once put a Russell day on July 23

Governor Spencer J. Cox announced it at the Utah State Capitol on 22 July 2021, declaring the following day President M. Russell Ballard Day. His own text ties that date to Pioneer Day and the Days of '47, so the two calendars simply landed on each other.

in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought
The Nobel FoundationPrize motivation, Nobel Prize in Literature 1950, awarded to Bertrand Russell

GOOD TO KNOW

National Russell Day Around the World

Canada

Behind the Name records 1972 as the last year Russell appeared on the country's popularity list, at 92nd.

New Zealand

The name's last recorded showing there was 85th, in 1979.

Australia (New South Wales)

Ranked 96th in 1985, the final year the state's list carries it.

Scotland

Bowed out at exactly 100th in 1986, the last of the four to drop it.

England and Wales

Still listed. The 2025 birth registrations put Russell 953rd among boys' names.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Russell Day

Countable

The register is generous with common names and blind to rare ones.

The American files are generous but not complete. The Social Security Administration excludes names with fewer than five occurrences, and in 2025 the top 1000 boys' names covered 75.59 percent of all boys' names given. A name that stays on the list stays visible; the long tail below it does not.

Namesakes

When a Russell day makes the news, it is usually a person

Utah's governor declared September 9, 2024 President Russell M. Nelson Day for a hundredth birthday. Days named for individual Russells are proclaimed and reported in a way a day for the name itself never is, which makes the two easy to confuse.

Baseline

The name was already in use when the counting started

In 1880, the first year the American files cover, Russell sat 196th among boys' names on 62 records. Those early years count Social Security card applications rather than births, so the figure is a floor and not a headcount.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Russell Day

CHECK

Check the England and Wales table too

The Office for National Statistics publishes every boy's name registered there, drawn from birth registration rather than card applications. Setting the two tables side by side shows how differently two countries use one name.

MEET

Meet the terriers

The American Kennel Club keeps breed records for the Russell Terrier, which it recorded in its Foundation Stock Service in October 2005 and describes as originating in England and developed in Australia.

WATCH

Watch next year's release

The American files are updated once a year. Note where the name sits now, then look again when the next edition lands and see whether the climb has held.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Russell Day?

1 / 8

What did the name Russell originally mean?

Answer

No. It has no official status that could be found: a full-text search of the Federal Register returns no document naming it.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

12sources
8primary records
6independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2026
Popular Baby Names: Beyond the Top 1000 Names
The national year-by-year baby-name files covering births from 1880 to 2025, the source of every American figure on this page. The page also states the agency's suppression rule, excluding names with fewer than five occurrences, and the share of all names the top 1000 covers.
View source
Office for National Statistics9 July 2026
Baby names for boys in England and Wales: 2025
The full England and Wales boys' name table for 2025, compiled from birth registrations, which ranks Russell 953rd on 32 boys. The workbook also records that names given to two or fewer babies are redacted.
View source
Federal Register
Federal Register document search API
The full-text search endpoint for federal documents. Exact-phrase queries for the day's name returned nothing.
View source
The Nobel Foundation
Bertrand Russell: Facts
The Nobel record for the 1950 Prize in Literature awarded to Bertrand Russell, carrying the prize motivation quoted on this page along with his birth and death dates.
View source
The Nobel Foundation
Russell A. Hulse: Facts
The Nobel record for the 1993 Prize in Physics, shared by Russell A. Hulse for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, with the citation wording used here.
View source
American Kennel Club
Russell Terrier Dog Breed Information
The registry's own breed record, which traces the Russell and Parson Russell terriers to the kennels of Rev. John Russell and dates the breed's entry to the AKC Foundation Stock Service.
View source
Office of the Governor of Utah9 September 2024
Gov. Cox declares President Russell M. Nelson Day in Utah
The governor's own media release declaring 9 September 2024 as President Russell M. Nelson Day, issued for Nelson's hundredth birthday.
View source
Newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints22 July 2021
Utah Governor Declares President M. Russell Ballard Day
Reproduces the full text of the Utah governor's declaration of 23 July 2021, including the clauses tying that date to Pioneer Day and the Days of '47 organisation.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name30 May 2025
Meaning, origin and history of the name Russell
The given-name entry, giving the Norman origin and the little red one meaning, and the country popularity block recording the last year each national list ranked the name.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the surname Russell
The surname entry, which types Russell as a surname from a nickname, hedges the red-haired reading, and lists the other-language equivalents including Rossi, Russo, Rousseau, Roussel, Rojas and Rojo.
View source
Behind the Name26 May 2026
Name Element RUSSUS
The root-word page giving Latin russus as red or reddish-brown, cited to Lewis and Short's A Latin Dictionary, with its surname descendants listed by language.
View source
nameday.com
Russell Name Day
A name-day calendar site that places Russell on 13 October, recorded here only to show that the date is not settled across listings.
View source
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