Who started National Jake Day?

The day spreads through holiday-listing sites and personal social posts that place it on May 28, which is how most minor name days travel. Beyond that, no founder or establishing record has been identified for it.

Is National Jake Day the same as A Day for Jake?

No. A Day for Jake is a separate observance run by Burton Snowboards for its founder Jake Burton Carpenter, gathering riders at resorts worldwide. It fell on March 14 in 2026, not on May 28.

What does the name Jake mean?

Behind the Name records Jake as a medieval variant of Jack, also used at times as a short form of Jacob.

National Jake Day

Next celebratedFriday, May 28, 2027

Jake's name day tracks a word that keeps getting away from the people who carry it: a live trademark on truck engine brakes, a young male wild turkey in state hunting law, and slang for fine.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 4, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 28

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A holiday that arrived by circulation, not decree.

No documented founder or formal establishment record has been identified for National Jake Day. The observance circulates on holiday-listing sites and in personal social posts that place it on May 28.

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

INTRO

1996 to 2001, a first name on Pennsylvania's road signs

In 1996 Pennsylvania began letting its municipalities post road signs reading "Jake Brake Prohibition". The state stopped using the term in 2001, after the company that owns the trademark alleged the signs were an unfair use of its mark. National Jake Day is for the people who share that first name.

The name keeps getting away from them. It turns up in state hunting regulations, in American slang, and on the federal trademark register.

ORIGINS

Jake Day history

INTRODUCTION

The device came first. Clessie Lyle Cummins invented what the American Society of Mechanical Engineers calls the first practical mechanism for slowing a heavy truck on a long grade using its own engine compression.

The society dates that work to 1957. Jacobs Manufacturing began producing the brake in 1961. A landmark plaque for the invention was dedicated in October 1985.

CHAPTER 01

A first name on the register

The mark JAKE BRAKE sits on the federal register in standard characters, owned by Jacobs Vehicle Systems. The registration issued in 2004 and has been renewed twice since. Its own record disclaims the word brake.

That is a live mark, not a historical curiosity. The most recent renewal was accepted in the summer of 2024.

CHAPTER 02

What the states have to write around

Public bodies still reach for the term, then correct themselves in the same document. Connecticut's Office of Legislative Research titles a 2021 report Jake Brake Restrictions, and opens by explaining that the name actually covers all of the company's brake retarding products. The same report finds the restrictions sit mostly at the local level, and names Delaware as a state that bans their use.

Pennsylvania's transportation department does the same in its guidance to municipal officials. Its 2024 technical sheet asks whether requests to restrict "Jake Brakes" are commonplace, printing the registered-trademark symbol on the phrase. The same sheet notes that the generic term is engine brake retarder systems.

CHAPTER 03

The day itself

The name reached the calendar by a much quieter route. National Jake Day has no documented founder and no establishing record.

So the record splits in two. The word Jake is written into trademark files, state vehicle codes and hunting regulations. The observance for the people who answer to it is written down almost nowhere.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A name for a country bumpkin

The Online Etymology Dictionary records jake in use by this year as the typical name for a rustic lout.

The jake leg epidemic

30,000 men were paralyzed within a few months after drinking adulterated bottles of a medicine called jake, sold illegally as liquor.

The engine brake is dated

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers dates the first practical compression brake for heavy trucks to this year.

Jacobs begins production

The Jacobs manufacturing company started building the engine brake retarder that would carry the name into trucking.

The standard-character mark issues

The United States Patent and Trademark Office registered JAKE BRAKE in standard characters to Jacobs Vehicle Systems.

A second renewal is accepted

The trademark office accepted the mark's second ten-year renewal, keeping the registration live.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Jake Day Matters

REGULATION

In Louisiana only hunters 17 and under may take a jake.

Louisiana's wildlife department bars adult hunters from taking jakes altogether, reserving them for properly licensed youth aged 17 and under, one per season. A word most people meet as a name is doing regulatory work with a measurable test behind it.

LANGUAGE

The dictionary's jake is not a person

Merriam-Webster gives two senses under the headword, and the given name is not among them. The noun comes first, a sexually immature male wild turkey under two years old, and the slang adjective meaning all right or fine comes second.

OBSERVANCE

The day travels by personal post

National Jake Day moves through individual social posts rather than through a campaign, and those posts are what fix it to a date. A public Facebook post from May 2025 opens by stating the date and telling readers to show the Jake in their life that he has earned it.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Jake Day by the Numbers

No. 106: Peak US boys' name rank, 2000s
21,415: US boys named Jake, 2010s
6 in: Beard limit defining a jake turkey
30 x 36 in: Pennsylvania brake retarder sign size

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Jake Day

Two references disagree on when jake meant fine

The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the slang sense to 1914 and calls it of unknown origin. Dictionary.com puts the first record at 1895 to 1900 and calls the origin uncertain.

A Jake Brake slogan mark died on paperwork

JAKE BRAKE SAVES A TRUCKLOAD was registered in 1987 and cancelled in 2008 after its owner did not file a required declaration.

The plaque and the trademark share a street address

The engineering society's landmark plaque sits at 22 East Dudley Town Road in Bloomfield, Connecticut. That is the same address the live JAKE BRAKE registration gives for its owner.

A Pennsylvania town cannot ban engine braking alone

Under Section 4103 of Title 75, a municipality must obtain the transportation department's written permission before restricting brake retarders, even on its own local roads.

Prohibition-era jake was a clipping of Jamaica ginger

Dictionary.com traces the drink sense to 1925 to 1930, apparently as an alteration of Jamaica ginger.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Jake Day

Send a note to a Jake you know

Reach out to someone who carries the name and say why you thought of them. A name day has no ceremony attached, so the message is the observance.

Search the federal trademark register for the mark

Look up JAKE BRAKE on the Patent and Trademark Office's public status view and read the file yourself. The owner, the goods, the disclaimer and every renewal are laid out on one page.

LOOK

Look up the birth-name tables for your own decade

The Social Security Administration publishes the 200 most common American given names by decade. Find the decade you were born in and see which names your classmates were carrying.

LEARN

Learn to tell a jake from a tom

Tennessee's wildlife agency trains volunteers to separate the two by beard length in its turkey identification guide. The guide is written for the agency's survey volunteers, and it changes what you notice in a field.

READ

Read a state sheet on engine braking

Pennsylvania's technical guidance walks municipal officials through what they may restrict and what the sign has to say. It is a short, unusually readable piece of public administration.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Jake Day?

1 / 8

In state wildlife regulations, what is a jake?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found, so it is a normal working day. A full-text search of the Federal Register for the exact phrase returns nothing.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

19sources

13primary records

14independently dated

Primary records

United States Patent and Trademark Office2024

JAKE BRAKE, US Registration 2864614 (TSDR status view)

The live federal registration, its owner, goods, disclaimer and renewals.