Holiday Calendar

National Logan Day

Next celebratedThursday, August 26, 2027

In October 2000 Canada announced its highest peak would carry Pierre Trudeau's name, then retreated within weeks and left Mount Logan alone. National Logan Day marks the word underneath it, Gaelic for a little hollow.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAugust 26
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A name day that arrived by circulation.

No record identifies who created National Logan Day or when it began. It appears on holiday listings and circulates on social media each August 26.

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

A word for a hollow that became a top-five Scottish name

National Logan Day honors a name that spent decades as an also-ran in the country it came from. In the earliest period Scotland's registrar covers, Logan ranked 416th among boys' first forenames. That register opens in 1974.

By the 2010s, Scotland ranked it fifth. The word underneath that climb is a very small one.

Logan began as a Scottish surname, taken from a place in Ayrshire. It is built on the Gaelic lag, meaning a hollow or a pit, with a diminutive ending added. It means, roughly, little hollow.

That little hollow has since been fixed to Canada's highest mountain, to a stretch of the West Virginia map, and to a science-fiction hero issued a number instead of a name.

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ORIGINS

Logan Day history

INTRODUCTION

In October 2000, Canada's highest mountain was nearly renamed. Pierre Trudeau had died weeks earlier, and Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced that the peak would carry the former leader's name instead of Logan's.

The plan did not survive the month. Opposition came from Alberta's premier and from Yukon MP Louise Hardy, and on 16 October the heritage minister told the Commons that no decision had been made. The mountain is still Mount Logan.

CHAPTER 01

The geologist behind the mountain

The name belonged to Sir William E. Logan, the geologist who founded the Geological Survey of Canada. The mountain stands 5,959 meters in Yukon's Kluane National Park and Reserve, on the traditional territories of the Kluane and White River First Nations.

Even its height has moved. Albert H. MacCarthy led the first ascents in 1925. Those climbers put the high point at 6,050 meters, which a later resurvey corrected downward.

CHAPTER 02

The name on the American map

Logan reached North America by a second route. In colonial Pennsylvania the Oneida leader Shickellamy named two sons after James Logan, a Pennsylvania statesman he had worked with.

In April 1774, frontiersmen led by Jacob and Daniel Greathouse killed members of one son's family near Yellow Creek on the upper Ohio River. Historians record that the precise details are disputed, and that they remain divided over which son was the man later known simply as Logan. Where the name settled is clearer: Logan County, the town of Logan and Chief Logan State Park in West Virginia all carry it, and Mingo County indirectly so.

CHAPTER 03

A serial number in a domed city

The name also went to a character who was never given one. United Artists released Logan's Run in June 1976. In its sealed city, a crystal set in each resident's hand turns black at 30.

Michael York played Logan 5, a policeman who hunts the people trying to outrun that deadline. The novel behind the film had set the age at 21, and screenwriter David Zelag Goodman raised it. Behind the Name dates Logan's American climb to the mid-1970s, and suggests the film may have played a part.

CHAPTER 04

How the day got here

The observance itself arrived differently. National Logan Day lives on holiday listings and in posts made on the date, and that circulation is its whole record. Its author and its date remain open questions.

TIMELINE

Timeline

First ascents of Mount Logan

A joint Canadian and American expedition led by Albert H. MacCarthy reached the summits of Canada's highest peak.

Logan's Run reaches cinemas

United Artists released the dystopian film in June, with Michael York as a policeman called Logan 5.

The mountain loses height

A resurvey established Mount Logan at 5,959 meters, well below the figure its first climbers had recorded.

Ottawa moves to rename the peak

The government announced Mount Logan would honor Pierre Trudeau, then retreated within weeks after public opposition.

Trudeau gets another mountain

A British Columbia peak was renamed for the former prime minister at a ceremony his eldest son attended.

Logan ranks 35th in Scotland

The name sat six places lower than the year before in the national register of first forenames.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Logan Day Matters

RECORDS

Fifth in America in 2017, and in no other year on record.

The Social Security Administration publishes the five most frequent American baby names for every year of birth from 1926 onward, and Logan appears in that table exactly once. It sits at fifth among boys in 2017 and nowhere else in the hundred-year run.

MOMENTUM

The Scottish peak has already passed

Scotland registered 1,930 boys named Logan in the 2010-14 period, the name's strongest stretch in the national record. The comparable count for 2020-25 fell to 937.

CROSSOVER

One of the names counted on both sides

Scotland's registrar reserves its both-sexes table for names that clear a threshold among boys and among girls alike. Logan makes that list on the strength of 77 girls.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Logan Day by the Numbers

111
Boys named Logan in Scotland, 2025
7,417
Babies named Logan in Scotland since 1974
52nd
Logan's Scottish rank, 1974 to 2025
126,850
US boys named Logan in the 2010s

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Logan Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look the name up in an official register

The Social Security Administration publishes American given names by year of birth. Searching one name across the decades shows when it arrived and how long it lasted.

COMPARE

Compare two countries on the same name

National Records of Scotland releases its own annual list of babies' first forenames. Reading it alongside the American figures shows how differently one name can travel.

FIND

Find Mount Logan on a map

Canada's highest peak carries the name, inside a Yukon national park and reserve. Locating it is a quick reminder of how far a Scottish place name traveled.

WATCH

Watch Logan's Run

The dystopia that put the name on cinema screens in 1976 is widely available to stream or rent. Behind the Name suggests it may have played a part in the name's American rise.

ASK

Ask the Logans you know about their name

Registry data shows when the name became common, but never why one family chose it. A short conversation fills in what the statistics cannot.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Logan Day?

1 / 8

What does the name Logan originally mean?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found, so it is a normal working day. No proclamation or resolution establishing it could be located, and the Illinois statute that designates that state's commemorative days lists no Logan day either.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

12sources
5primary records
11independently dated
Primary records
National Records of Scotland2026
Babies' First Names, 2025
Scotland's official register of babies' first forenames, with ranks back to the 1970s.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Top 5 Names in Each of the Last 100 Years
The five most frequent American baby names for every birth year from 1926 to 2025.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2020
Popular Names by Birth Decade: 2010s
The 200 most common American names for babies born during the 2010s, with counts.
View source
U.S. National Park Service
John Logan: War Hero, Public Servant, Founder of Memorial Day
A biography of the Civil War general, giving his birth and death dates.
View source
Justia2025
5 ILCS 490, State Commemorative Dates Act
The full Illinois statute listing every commemorative day the state designates.
View source
Additional coverage
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation2025-01
Who Was Logan? The Mystery at the Heart of the Shawnee-Dunmore War
Why historians still cannot agree which of Shickellamy's sons was the famous Logan.
View source
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia2024-04
Chief Logan
The West Virginia counties, town and state park that carry the Logan name.
View source
The Canadian Encyclopedia2024-10
Mount Logan
Canada's highest peak, its 1925 first ascents and the 1992 resurvey of its height.
View source
CBC News2000-10
Prime minister backs down from renaming mountain
Contemporary reporting on the 2000 plan to rename Mount Logan and the retreat from it.
View source
CBC News2006-06
B.C. mountain named after Trudeau
The 2006 ceremony renaming a British Columbia peak for Pierre Trudeau.
View source
Behind the Name2026-05
Meaning, origin and history of the name Logan
The Gaelic etymology of Logan, traced to a dictionary of surnames.
View source
The Hollywood Reporter2026
Logan's Run at 50: Sci-Fi Movie Tackled Overpopulation, Sustainability
A retrospective on the 1976 film, its premise and the change to its central age.
View source
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