Holiday Calendar

National Tyler Day

Next celebratedMonday, July 12, 2027

Tyler works as a date stamp: 71.6 percent of the American boys ever given it were born between 1988 and 2007. July 12 gathers that one generation, 541,525 people deep at the last census.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEJuly 12
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

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

Proclaimed Tyler Days exist, just not this one.

No founding entity, organisation or first observance has been documented for National Tyler Day. The day circulates on July 12 and has been marked on that date by a regional newsroom and by a public university, but the record contains no act that brought it into being.

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

Born a job description: now America's 79th most common first name

Tyler is a job. Before it belonged to anyone it meant the person who made or laid the tiles, a word parked at the back of an English name to say what a family did for a living. National Tyler Day honours a name that has almost completely escaped that job.

Census takers in 2020 found far more Tylers at the front of a name than at the back. They counted 541,525 Americans with Tyler as a given name. That is roughly nine times the number who still carry it as a surname.

The change is recent. Set the line at 1970 and almost the whole history of the name sits on one side of it. 99.1% of American boys ever recorded as Tyler were born from that year onward.

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ORIGINS

Tyler Day history

INTRODUCTION

In June 1381 a rebel leader met England's fourteen-year-old king at Smithfield, demanded rights for common people, and was stabbed where he stood. He died on 15 June. He is remembered as Wat Tyler.

The second half of that name may not have been his family's at all. Tyler is filed by the Dictionary of American Family Names as an occupational name, from a Middle English word for someone who made or laid tiles for floors or roofs. The trade came first, and the surname followed it.

CHAPTER 01

A president who took the office by improvising

William Henry Harrison died just after midnight on April 4, 1841, thirty-one days into his term. The Constitution did not say whether his vice president became president or merely did the job. John Tyler kept Harrison's cabinet, took a second oath in front of them, and moved into the White House within a week of the funeral.

His opponents called him His Accidency. Every vice president who has risen to the presidency since has followed his example anyway.

CHAPTER 02

Barely in the record at all

The national name register does not begin until 1880, thirty-nine years after that. Social Security lists 1,352 boys with the name across its first seventy-one years. The single year 1978 produced more.

CHAPTER 03

The climb, and the fall

Then it moved. Tyler stood outside the top hundred boys' names in 1980. Thirteen years later it was fifth.

The peak came in 1994. American parents gave it to 30,482 boys that year. The fall since has been just as steep, and the name now sits back near its late-1970s level.

CHAPTER 04

Whose day it is, and whose it is not

The observance arrives last, and it arrives unsigned. Virginia's governor proclaimed March 29, 2015 as John Tyler Day, one man's birthday, marked with an Army wreath at his grave in Richmond. July 12 honours everyone else who answers to the name, and it carries no such signature.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Tyler Day

GENERATION

The median American Tyler was born in 1997.

Of every American boy given the name since 1880, 71.6% were born in the twenty years from 1988 to 2007. The median birth year is 1997, which makes Tyler a fairly reliable marker of a single American generation.

REACH

Tyler charts well beyond the United States

Behind the Name's national popularity charts place Tyler in England and Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Quebec, the Netherlands and France. A name day for Tyler therefore has takers well outside the country where the name peaked.

RECORD

It ranks ninth for an entire American decade

The Social Security Administration's own published decade table puts Tyler ninth among American boys' names for the whole of the 1990s, with 262,320 births. Only eight names beat it across those ten years.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Wat Tyler killed at Smithfield

The leader of the Kentish rebels in the Peasants' Revolt was stabbed in front of the fourteen-year-old Richard II and executed shortly afterwards.

John Tyler improvises the succession

After William Henry Harrison died in office, his vice president took a second oath and claimed the presidency outright rather than acting in it.

First SSA record, seven boys

The opening year of American national name data lists seven boys given the name Tyler.

Tyler peaks at 30,482 boys

The name reached its highest annual count on record, having ranked fifth among American boys' names the year before.

Virginia proclaims John Tyler Day

Governor Terry McAuliffe proclaimed March 29 as John Tyler Day, and the Army laid a wreath at the president's grave in Richmond.

Radford University marks July 12

The Virginia university posted for National Tyler Day about the Tyler-named streets and buildings on its own campus.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Tyler Day by the Numbers

62,380
Americans with Tyler as a surname
603,970
US boys named Tyler since 1880
17,523
US girls named Tyler since 1880
#79
Tyler's rank, US first names 2020
1,633
US boys named Tyler in 2025

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Tyler Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Tell a Tyler what the name actually meant

It began as a job title for the person who made and laid the tiles. That is a sharper piece of family history than most first names can offer.

LOOK

Look up the year your Tyler was born

The Social Security Administration publishes an annual count for the name going back to 1880. Find the birth year and you find out how crowded that Tyler's kindergarten was.

RUN

Run your own surname through both census tables

The Census Bureau lists first names and last names separately, at the same reporting threshold. Most names sit firmly on one side of that divide, and Tyler is one that crossed it.

READ

Read up on the Smithfield meeting of 1381

Wat Tyler led the Kentish rebels into London and was killed meeting the king. Few name days come with a scene that concrete attached to them.

TOAST

Toast the tilers, not only the Tylers

The name honours a medieval trade that roofed and floored English buildings. Raise the first glass to the job, and the second to the people who ended up carrying it.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Tyler Day?

1 / 8

What did the word 'tyler' originally describe?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing, so July 12 is a normal working day. A search of the Federal Register returns no document that mentions it.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

12sources
6primary records
6independently dated
Primary records
US Census Bureau2020 Census
Frequently Occurring First Names in the 2020 Census by Sex
Every US first name reported 100 or more times in the 2020 Census, with rank and count.
View source
US Census Bureau2020 Census
Frequently Occurring Last Names in the 2020 Census by Race and Hispanic Origin
The matching surname table from the same census, covering 156,621 last names.
View source
US Social Security Administration2025 birth year
Popular Baby Names, national data
Yearly counts for every name given to at least five US babies since 1880.
View source
US Social Security Administration
Popular Names in the 1990s
The agency's published top-1000 American names for the decade 1990 to 1999.
View source
US Army2015-03-30
CASCOM honors nation's 10th president
The Army's account of the 2015 John Tyler Day proclamation and graveside wreath-laying.
View source
Radford University2023-07-12
National Tyler Day post
A Virginia university marking the day on 12 July with its Tyler-named campus places.
View source
Additional coverage
White House Historical Association
John Tyler and Presidential Succession
A footnoted account of the 1841 succession crisis and the precedent Tyler set.
View source
Oxford University Press2022
Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition
The scholarly etymology of Tyler as an occupational surname for a tile maker.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Tyler
The given name's derivation from Old English tigele, plus national popularity charts.
View source
Britannica
Wat Tyler
The rebel leader's death on 15 June 1381 and his role in the Peasants' Revolt.
View source
London Museum
How the Peasants' Revolt rocked medieval London
The revolt's chronology and the Smithfield meeting with the fourteen-year-old Richard II.
View source
Britannica
Fight Club
The 1999 David Fincher film and the 1996 Chuck Palahniuk novel behind it.
View source
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