Your name day is the feast of the saint you’re named after. It’s a spiritual birthday. We celebrate it by going to church, honoring our patron saint, and usually sharing a meal with family or friends.
When you were baptized or chrismated, you received a Christian name. That name connects you to a specific saint who becomes your patron and intercessor. Every year when the Church commemorates that saint on the calendar, that’s your name day. It’s not about you, really. It’s about renewing your relationship with the saint who prays for you and whose life you’re called to imitate.
In many Orthodox cultures, name days matter more than birthdays. That might sound strange if you grew up Baptist in Beaumont, where birthdays mean cake and presents and everyone singing off-key at Cheddar’s. But the logic makes sense once you think about it. Your birthday marks when you entered the world. Your name day marks your connection to the communion of saints and to the particular holy man or woman who stands before God’s throne interceding for you by name.
How to Actually Celebrate
The main thing is attending Divine Liturgy on your name day if you can. Receive Communion. That’s the heart of it. If your saint’s feast falls on a Tuesday and you work a twelve-hour shift at the refinery, attend the nearest Sunday Liturgy and make a point to receive Communion that week. The goal isn’t legalism. It’s communion with God through the prayers of your saint.
At home, put your saint’s icon somewhere prominent. If you don’t own one yet, that’s fine, but consider getting one. Venerate it. Read the saint’s life to your kids or reread it yourself. Sing or say the saint’s troparion in your evening prayers. If you don’t know it by heart, look it up in the Orthodox Study Bible or ask your priest for the text. These small acts turn the day from ordinary time into something set apart.
Then there’s the hospitality part. Traditionally, you invite people over. Not a big production, just coffee and pastries or a simple meal. In some Orthodox cultures, you’d keep an open house and anyone could drop by. Your friends and family say “Many years!” and might bring flowers or wine or sweets. But here’s the twist: you’re the host. You’re not throwing yourself a birthday party where everyone brings you gifts. You’re celebrating your patron saint by offering hospitality, which is itself a way of imitating the saints.
If you’ve got young kids, keep it simple. Make their favorite dinner. Bake a cake. Let them stay up a little late. Read the saint’s story from a children’s book. The point isn’t perfection. It’s marking the day as different, as holy.
Godparents should reach out to their godchildren on name days. A phone call, a card, a small gift. It’s one of those rhythms that keeps the godparent relationship alive beyond the baptism itself.
What If You Don’t Have a Saint’s Name?
Some people aren’t named after saints. Maybe you’re Robert or Jennifer or Brittany, and there’s no St. Brittany on the calendar. When that happens, the priest usually assigns a patron saint at your baptism or chrismation. Sometimes it’s a saint whose feast falls on your birthday. Sometimes it’s a saint whose life resonates with yours. Sometimes it’s just a saint your priest thinks you need. Ask your priest if you’re not sure who your patron is.
A Different Rhythm
Name days won’t replace birthdays in America, and that’s fine. But they offer something birthdays can’t. They pull your attention outward, toward the great cloud of witnesses, toward the reality that you’re part of a family that includes both the living and the dead. St. John or St. Mary or St. Nicholas isn’t just a name on your baptismal certificate. They’re your friend, your advocate, someone who knows you and prays for you.
Start small this year. Mark your calendar. Plan to go to Liturgy. Get an icon if you don’t have one. Invite a couple of people over for dessert. You don’t need to do it perfectly. You just need to do it. The saints aren’t picky about how we honor them. They just want us to remember we’re not alone.
