Holiday Calendar

National Corey Day

Next celebratedThursday, December 10, 2026

A six-year-old on NBC in 1968 took the name from 466 American boys to 4,924 in two years; the show's creator said Black children finally had a role model. December 10 is the day that name kept.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 10
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
“Two spellings, two dates: Corey on 10 December, Cory on 17 July.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The name has a citation. The day has a hashtag.

No founder, founding year or first observance is documented for National Corey Day in any source consulted for this page. It runs as a listed observance on 10 December and travels under the hashtags #NationalCoreyDay and #CoreyDay, with no organisation or individual recorded as running it.

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

Corey peaked in 1989, the year Scotland first recorded it

In 1989 American parents gave the name Corey to 8,003 baby boys. That was the name's best year in 146 years of Social Security Administration name records. By 2025 the count was 327.

The same year, Corey turned up in Scotland's register of babies' first names for the first time. Five boys. National Records of Scotland had been publishing that list since 1974, and until 1989 the name had not appeared in it.

Scotland's own peak came nineteen years later, in 2008. One name, and two national curves running a generation apart. National Corey Day falls on 10 December.

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ORIGINS

Corey Day history

CHAPTER 01

Two surnames wearing one spelling

Corey started as a surname, and it has more than one ancestor. Behind the Name traces the English surname to the Old Norse given name Kóri, and says its meaning is not known. The entry cites the onomastician Cleveland Kent Evans for both points.

A second line runs through Ireland. Rev. Patrick Woulfe's Irish Names and Surnames, published in 1923, lists Corey among the anglicised forms of Ó Comhraidhe, meaning descendant of Comhraidhe. Woulfe attaches it to three families: chiefs of Ui Mac Uais in Westmeath, a family of Corca Laoighdhe in south-west Cork, and a branch of the Dal gCais in Thomond.

CHAPTER 02

A boy on NBC changes the chart

As a first name in America, Corey spent most of the twentieth century nowhere. Then NBC aired Julia. Smithsonian Magazine records that the series premiered on 17 September 1968 and was an instant hit, winning Diahann Carroll the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy in its first season.

The same magazine calls it the first series with an African American lead character since Beulah and Amos and Andy in the early 1950s. Carroll played a widowed nurse. Marc Copage played her six-year-old son, Corey Baker.

The show's creator, Hal Kanter, later told the Television Academy what the character had been for: "For the first time in television, American Black children had a role model: little Corey Baker."

American parents moved fast. Corey went from 466 boys in 1967 to 4,924 in 1969, a rise of more than tenfold. Over those same two years the total of every boys' name the Social Security Administration published rose by a factor of 1.025, so the jump belongs to the name and not to the birth rate.

Behind the Name attributes that rise to the character, on the same citation. The birth data can only show the timing, and the timing fits.

CHAPTER 03

The best rank and the biggest year are twelve years apart

Corey held a place in America's top hundred every year from 1969 to 1996, with no gap in the run. Its best rank came in 1977, at 52. Its biggest count came twelve years later, in 1989, which says as much about the size of the field as it does about the name.

The two spellings with a K never came close. Kory accounts for 14,385 American boys across the whole record, and Korey for 11,443.

CHAPTER 04

The day, and what is not on the record

National Corey Day is listed for 10 December every year and carries its own hashtags. Beyond that the record is thin. No founder is documented, no founding year, and no first observance; nothing consulted for this page says who began it or when.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Corey Day

Cohort

Corey is a name and also, roughly, a date of birth.

Corey's whole run inside America's top hundred began and ended within a single generation, and the name has not been back since. That is a narrow window for a name once given to thousands of American boys a year. The day lands on a generation as much as on a name.

Spelling

Every registry treats Corey and Cory as different names

The Social Security Administration ranked Corey 62nd among boys born in the 1980s and Cory 70th, on its own decade table. The Office for National Statistics says the same thing in its notes: it ranks by the exact spelling on the birth registration. Any list of the most popular names is really a list of the most popular spellings.

Calendar

Two observances share 10 December and nothing else

10 December is Human Rights Day. The United Nations keeps the date for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948. Nothing connects the two observances beyond the date they share.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Onto the list at 998

Corey enters America's top thousand boys' names for the first time, at rank 998, on 49 births. It had spent every year since 1880 outside the list.

Julia premieres on NBC

The series arrives on 17 September with Diahann Carroll as a widowed nurse and Marc Copage as her young son, Corey Baker. American boys named Corey rise from 466 the year before to 1,577.

Into the top hundred

Corey enters the boys' top 100 at rank 58, on 4,924 births. It had been outside the top three hundred two years earlier.

The high-water mark

8,003 American boys are named Corey, ranked 55th. No other year in the data comes higher.

The run ends

Corey slips to 94th and drops out of the top hundred. It has not been back.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Corey Day by the Numbers

185,020
US boys named Corey since 1880
127,179
US boys named Cory, the other spelling
1 in 359
US boys born in the 1980s named Corey
9,056
US girls named Corey since 1880

GOOD TO KNOW

National Corey Day Around the World

Scotland

Corey does not appear in the national list of babies' first names for any year from 1974 to 1988. It arrives in 1989 with five boys, climbs to 91 boys and rank 79 in 2008, and is down to 18 by 2025. National Records of Scotland suppresses any name given to two or fewer babies, so those early years mean at most two a year rather than none.

England and Wales

The Office for National Statistics counted 65 boys named Corey in 2025 and ranked the name 593rd in a list of roughly 7,650. Cory took 16, Korey five and Kory three. ONS redacts any name given to two or fewer babies, so the smaller spellings sit close to the edge of what it will publish.

United States

Corey ran on the girls' list too, and it started in the same year as the boys' surge. It entered the girls' top thousand in 1969 at rank 881, held a place there in every year but one until 1995, and has been off the list since 1996.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Corey Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Ask which spelling, then get it right

Corey, Cory, Korey and Kory are four separate entries in every national name list, and each one is counted on its own. Ask before you write the card.

WATCH

Watch an episode of Julia

The series ran on NBC from 1968 to 1971, with Diahann Carroll as Julia Baker and Marc Copage as her son Corey. Three seasons, and a piece of television history in its own right.

LOOK

Look Corey up in Scotland

National Records of Scotland publishes every first forename registered since 1974, free to download. The file shows the whole Scottish curve, year by year.

POST

Post it with the right tag

The day travels under #NationalCoreyDay and #CoreyDay. Use one of them so the greeting reaches the Coreys who are looking for it.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Corey Day?

1 / 7

In which year did the name Corey reach its highest number of American baby boys?

Answer

No. The Federal Register carries no document naming it, and no other official or legal status was located, so it is an unofficial observance rather than a public holiday.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

11sources
7primary records
7independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2026
Beyond the Top 1000 Names: national data on given names at birth (names.zip)
Every first name given to at least five American babies of one sex in each year from 1880 to 2025, one file per year. The source of every United States count and rank on this page, read from an Internet Archive capture of the agency's own file taken on 27 August 2026.
View source
Social Security AdministrationData as of March 2026
Top names of the 1980s
The agency's published 200-name table for the decade, ranking Corey 62nd with 53,598 boys and Cory 70th with 44,358, and stating the decade's universe as 19,239,100 boy births. Both halves of the one-in-359 figure come from this table.
View source
National Records of Scotland26 May 2026
Babies' First Names 2025, full list of names given 1974 to 2025
Every first forename recorded on a Scottish birth registration from 1974 to 2025, with a count and rank for each year. The source of Corey's first Scottish appearance in 1989 and its 2008 peak.
View source
Office for National Statistics9 July 2026
Baby names for boys in England and Wales, 2025 edition
The full list of roughly 7,650 boys' names registered in England and Wales in 2025, with counts and ranks, plus the note that each spelling is counted separately and that counts of two or fewer are redacted.
View source
United Nations
Human Rights Day
The UN's own page for the observance kept on 10 December, marking the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948.
View source
Federal RegisterQueried 2 September 2026
Document search for the phrase National Corey Day
A full-text search of the Federal Register returning no documents containing the phrase.
View source
Library Ireland1923
O Comhraidhe, in Irish Names and Surnames by Rev. Patrick Woulfe
Woulfe's 1923 entry listing Corey among the anglicised forms of the Irish surname O Comhraidhe, with the three families that bore it, and giving its meaning as descendant of Comhraidhe.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Corey
The etymology entry deriving Corey from an English surname from the Old Norse Kori, of unknown meaning, and attributing the name's 1960s rise to the character Corey Baker on Julia. Both statements are footnoted to Cleveland Kent Evans, The Great Big Book of Baby Names, 2006.
View source
Smithsonian Magazine2018
Was the 1968 TV Show Julia a Milestone or a Millstone for Diversity?
An account of the series covering its 17 September 1968 premiere, its immediate success and Diahann Carroll's Golden Globe, its place as the first series with an African American lead character since the early 1950s, and Marc Copage's role as Corey Baker.
View source
Television Academy
Julia Set the Standard
A feature on the show's 1968 to 1971 NBC run and its premise, including creator Hal Kanter's own words on what the Corey Baker character meant to the audience that wrote in.
View source
EventGuide
National Corey Day
A holiday index listing National Corey Day on 10 December each year with the hashtags it travels under, and listing National Cory Day separately on 17 July. Evidence that the day is observed, not of who began it.
View source
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