Monday, April 25, 2011

What is Name Day?



It is an old European tradition. Every day of the year is someone's Name Day. People all across Europe have been celebrating their first names for centuries in the same way you celebrate your birthday.

Today, April 25 is name day for  Lesa, Lesley, Leslie, Lesly, Wilfred, Wilfredo.

To find your name day check out: http://www.mynameday.com/index.html

I've never heard of this before, but someone mentioned Happy Name Day and I checked it out. I like the idea.
My name day isn't until Sept. 4th.  Guess I'll have to wait until then to celebrate.



7 comments:

Viviane Brentanos said...

Oh gooness, Roseanne. Name days are huge in Greece, usually coinciding with aname of a saint so loads of cakes and house visists but, lets face it, The Greeks do anything for a cake and a booze up. The biggest on ein Corfu is Spiros as Agios Spiridon is the patron saint of the island. Maria, of course, mother of Jesus gets a lot of coverage too as does Nikos. Unfortunately - the Greek Orthodox do not have a Saint Viviane.

Roseanne Dowell said...

According to the site I found, Vivian (close but not exact) celebrate on 28-Aug VIVIAN Hey, I say go for it. Anything for a celebration. I like this tradition.

MuseItUp Publishing said...

A name day is usually celebrated for those who have the name of a 'saint' so today for the Greeks we are celebrating everyone who is named George/Georgia.

My son was named after my dad and my father in law.

Roseanne Dowell said...

I remember celebrating that when I went to Catholic School. I think, since there are so many people that aren't named for saints, they devised this name day. I think it's kind of fun.

J.D. Brown said...

Mine's December 18th (Jennifer). They do this in Mexico too (I think). From what I've been told from European friends is that name day is really "Saint's Day" as in the celebration of one of the saints from the Bible. Used to be that everyone named their kids after a Saint, so it' eventually became Name Day.

Oh wait... I see Lea mentioned this already. Oh well. :-)

Rosemary Gemmell said...

How interesting, Roseanne. I think here in Scotland it's probably only used for Saints' days in Catholic schools.

J.Q. Rose said...

This is new to me. But I like it. A party for your name day (mine is June 25) and a party for your birthday (May 25)...any reason to celebrate!