Holiday
A fanciful name referencing a festive celebration or vacation period.
Name Census estimates that about 397 living Americans carry the first name Holiday. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Holiday today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Holiday births was 2019 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Holiday. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
397
~ 1 in 863,361 Americans
Peak year
2019
22 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,847
Tracked since 1952
Census
Holiday in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 494 people with the first name Holiday, which placed it at #20,791 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20,791
National first-name rank
People counted
494
494 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Holiday
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holiday is White at 66.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.5%) and Black (8.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Holiday described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Holiday at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.4% · 328
- Hispanic or Latino10.5% · 52
- Black or African American8.7% · 43
- Two or more races7.1% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.3% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 5
Popularity
Holiday: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Holiday from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 149 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Holiday remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Holiday by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Holiday during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Holidays live
Origin
Meaning and history of Holiday
The name Holiday is an English given name that originated in the late 20th century. It is derived from the word "holiday," which comes from the Old English "haligdæg," meaning "holy day." The name is a modern invention, likely inspired by the idea of celebrating special occasions or commemorating joyful events.
While the name Holiday does not have a long historical lineage, it has gained popularity in recent decades as a unique and whimsical choice for newborns. The earliest recorded instances of the name being used date back to the 1970s and 1980s, though its usage was relatively rare at that time.
One of the first notable individuals to bear the name Holiday was Holiday Reinhorn, an American actress and filmmaker born in 1977. She is known for her work in independent films and television shows, including the series "Raising Hope" and "Leverage."
Another individual with the name Holiday is Holiday Singer, an American singer-songwriter born in 1983. She has released several albums and is known for her eclectic style, blending elements of folk, rock, and pop music.
In the literary world, Holiday Reinhorn is also the name of a fictional character in the novel "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, published in 2012. The character is a young girl with cancer who befriends the main protagonist, Hazel Grace Lancaster.
Holiday Brakeman is an American model and social media influencer, born in 1995. She has worked with various fashion brands and has amassed a significant following on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
Holiday Golightly is a character in the novel "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote, published in 1958. Although not a real person, the character's name has become iconic and has likely influenced the use of the name Holiday in popular culture.
While the name Holiday is relatively modern and lacks a deep historical lineage, it has gained a certain whimsical appeal in recent decades, with individuals from various fields embracing its unique and celebratory connotations.
People
Holiday + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Holiday as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Holiday: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Holiday?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 397 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Holiday going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 863,361 US residents.
Is Holiday a common name?
We classify Holiday as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 414 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Holiday most popular?
The single biggest year for Holiday was 2019, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Holiday is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Holiday in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 494 people with the name Holiday, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,791 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Holiday in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Holiday?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Holiday leans strongly female. 448 people counted with this name were female (91.4%), compared with 42 male bearers (8.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Holiday?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Holiday is White at 66.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.5%) and Black (8.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Holiday most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Holiday in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.4% (328 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Holiday in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Holiday a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Holiday in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Holiday still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Holiday in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Holiday can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Holiday as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.