Holiday Calendar

National Travis Day

Next celebratedSunday, December 6, 2026

The surname began at a toll: in Old French traverser meant to cross, and a Travis was the man taking the money where a road met a river. December 6 hands the name to everyone carrying it now, and the day's own origin is blank.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 6
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
“The name has a paper trail running back to 1172. The day attached to it has none at all.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Independently marked in 2025 by a UK newsroom.

National Travis Day is kept as a fixed 6 December name day and was independently attested for 2025 by the Manchester Evening News. No founder, establishing act or first observance could be located, and nothing documents when it began.

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

Travis grew faster than the rest of 1978's top hundred

Line up the hundred most common American boys' names of 1978. In 1979 one of them gained more share of births than any of the others, and it was Travis. The median name in that group lost ground.

The jump was not modest. The year before, Travis took 0.4235 percent of listed male births. A year later it took 0.6411 percent, a rise of just over half.

National Travis Day falls on December 6 and belongs to anyone who carries the name, wherever they live. Its own beginning is blank: no founder, no establishing act and no first observance could be found. The name underneath it is far better documented than the day.

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ORIGINS

Travis Day history

CHAPTER 01

The man in the Lincoln register

The earliest bearer SurnameDB can name is Walter Travers, entered in the 1172 register of the Gilbertine monastery at Lincoln, in the reign of King Henry II. SurnameDB calls it an English medieval surname of French origins, probably brought over after the Norman-French invasion of 1066.

The job behind the word was ordinary and specific. Someone stood at a gate or a ford and took the toll from whoever wanted to cross. SurnameDB quotes Professor Reaney on a claim from 1285, when the Bishop of Norwich said he was accustomed to take travers at South Elmham, for the upkeep of the bridge.

The name then settled into English records. SurnameDB lists Margareta Travas in the Gildersome Rolls of Yorkshire in 1433. Ann Travis of Burtonwood in Lancashire follows in 1578.

CHAPTER 02

Out of the Alamo

The surname crossed into American use as a first name, and Behind the Name credits one man for it. He is William Barret Travis, the commander of the Texan forces at the Battle of the Alamo.

He was a lawyer and a Texian Army officer, and he died at the Alamo Mission in 1836. During the siege he wrote the plea for reinforcements that survives as the Victory or Death letter. Behind the Name gives his dates as 1809-1836.

CHAPTER 03

The American century

Travis is in the very first Social Security year file, from 1880. Then it climbed, entering the American top hundred in 1970. It held a place there for 29 consecutive years.

Then it receded. In the 2025 file Travis sits well outside the top hundred. It ranks 434th among listed male names.

The day itself has no such trail. No founder, establishing act or first observance for National Travis Day could be located. What is documented is that people keep it.

TIMELINE

Timeline

First recorded bearer of the surname

SurnameDB places Walter Travers in the register of the Gilbertine monastery at Lincoln, the earliest recording it gives for the surname in any spelling.

William Travis dies at the Alamo

The Texian commander was killed defending the Alamo Mission, and Behind the Name credits American use of the given name to him.

Travis enters the first year file

The earliest Social Security national file ranks Travis 564th among listed male names.

Travis enters the American top hundred

The name began a run of 29 consecutive years inside the hundred most common American boys' names.

Travis reaches its best rank

The name placed 36th among American boys' names, the highest position it reaches in any Social Security year file.

Most Travises born in one year

American records show 11,526 boys given the name, the largest single-year count on file.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Travis Day

Two years are missing, and zero is not why

Travis appears in 144 of the 146 Social Security files for boys. It is absent from 1881 and 1887, which under the agency's five-birth listing floor means fewer than five boys were recorded, not none.

Girls carried the name too, until 2004

American records list 2,116 girls given the name Travis across 88 year files, beginning in 1910. The last of them appears in 2004.

The Scottish band took the name from a film

Travis formed in Glasgow in 1990 and played as Glass Onion until 1993. The name comes from Travis Henderson, the character Harry Dean Stanton plays in Paris, Texas.

One medieval surname, four spellings

SurnameDB records the surname in several forms, including Travers, Traves, Travis and Traviss, all treated as spellings of the same English medieval name.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Travis Day

Reach

A UK newsroom marked this day on its own channel.

The Manchester Evening News, a UK regional newsroom, marked the day on its own Facebook channel on 6 December 2025 with the line that it is a day to celebrate all the people called Travis in our lives. That post is the strongest attestation located for the day, and it puts the observance outside both the United States and the holiday-listing sites.

Company

It shares a date with a much older name day

December 6 already carries Saint Nicholas Day in the Western Christian calendar, which is the traditional name day for Nicholas. National Travis Day is a modern observance of the same shape, sitting on the same square of the calendar.

Scale

It covers a large and specific group

This is not a boutique name. Social Security records show 308,571 American boys given the name Travis across 144 of its 146 yearly files, counting only names with five or more births in a year. A day for Travises reaches a definable population rather than an abstraction.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Travis Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Ask a Travis how the name was chosen

The registers record what the name has meant for eight centuries. None of them records why one set of parents picked it for one child. Ask the Travis you know, and write the answer down.

LOOK

Look up the year they were born

The Social Security Administration publishes national baby name files back to 1880, and its data page explains what the files do and do not contain. Find the birth year and see where the name stood.

PUT

Put the 1979 question to someone born then

A great many Travises were born in the years right after the jump, and the cause of it has not been established. A Travis with a birthday in that stretch is carrying an unsolved piece of American naming history.

SEND

Send the day on to a Travis you have lost touch with

A name day asks for no gift and no plan, which makes it a low-cost reason to message someone. December 6 comes round once a year and is easy to remember.

READ

Read the letter written at the Alamo

The Victory or Death letter is the one document in this story a person can sit down and read for themselves. It takes a few minutes, and it is the closest thing the day has to a founding text, even though it founded nothing.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Travis Day?

1 / 7

What did the surname Travis originally describe?

Answer

No. No official or public-holiday status could be located for it, and it is not a day off.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

8sources
2primary records
1independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration
Popular Baby Names: Background Information (limits)
The agency's own description of its national baby-name dataset, including the rule that names with fewer than five occurrences are excluded to protect privacy, and the published table showing the top 1000 boys' names covering 75.59 percent of male births in 2025. Every count, share and rank on this page comes from the national files this page distributes, covering birth years 1880 through 2025.
View source
Manchester Evening News2025-12-06
It's National Travis Day
A UK regional newsroom marking the observance on its own verified channel on 6 December 2025, the clearest evidence located that the day is kept outside holiday-listing sites.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Travis
The name's entry in an etymological name reference, giving the derivation from the English surname and Old French traverser meaning to cross, and stating that the given name was used in America in honour of the commander of the Texan forces at the Battle of the Alamo.
View source
The Internet Surname Database
Travis Surname: Meaning, Origin & Family History
A surname reference recording Travis as an English medieval surname of French origins, listing Travers, Traves, Travis and Traviss as spelling forms, naming Walter Travers in the 1172 Gilbertine monastery register at Lincoln as the first known recording in any spelling, and giving later English examples from Yorkshire and Lancashire.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Travis
An etymology entry dating the surname to the late twelfth century, deriving it from an Old French word meaning to cross over, and glossing it as probably a name for a gatekeeper or the toll collector of a bridge.
View source
Wikipedia
William B. Travis
Biography of William Barret Travis, 1809 to 1836, the Texian Army officer and lawyer who defended the Alamo Mission and wrote the plea for reinforcements known as the Victory or Death letter.
View source
Wikipedia
Travis (band)
Article on the Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1990, active as Glass Onion until 1993, whose name comes from the character Travis Henderson played by Harry Dean Stanton in the 1984 film Paris, Texas.
View source
Wikipedia
Saint Nicholas Day
Article on the 6 December feast in the Western Christian calendar, the long-established observance that shares the date and anchors the traditional name day for Nicholas.
View source
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