Bulgarian Name Days are the Bulgarian expression of a custom practiced in most countries in which the Eastern Orthodox or Greek Orthodox

Church of Greece

The Church of Greece , part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Orthodox Christianity...

 religion is the official denomination.

A Name Day is a day of the year set aside on the calendar of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Bulgarian Orthodox Church

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...

 to celebrate the name and life of a certain Saint. Everyone named after that specific saint has cause for celebration, somewhat similar to a large scale birthday.

Some name days are associated with certain specific traditions. For example, on St. Nick's Day a stuffed carp

Carp

Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. The cypriniformes are traditionally grouped with the Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes to create the superorder Ostariophysi, since these groups have certain...

 has to be cooked and served at dinner, while on St. George's Day a lamb must be prepared.

Even though name days in general are usually associated with saints in Bulgaria some of them are in honor of important figures from the history of Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

.

Some common name days:

• St. Cyril and Metodi's (Methodius's) Day.
• Vasil's Day
• Ivan's Day
• St. Georgi's (George's) Day
• Dimitar's day
• Todor's Day
• St. Nick's Day
• St. Antoine

Names by Month

January

• 1 Vasil, Vasilena, Vesela, Vesselin, Veselina
• 6 Bogdan, Bogdana, Bogomil, Bogomila, Iordan, Iordanka, Teodosii
• 7 Ioan, Ioana, Yoan, Yoana, Ivan, Ivanka, Ivayla, Ivaylo, Ivet, Kaloian, Kaloyan, Vanya, Vanyo, Zhan, Zhana
• 12 Tanya, Tatyana
• 14 Nina
• 17 Andon, Anton, Antonia, Dona, Doncho, Donka
• 18 Atanas, Atanaska
• 19 Silvia
• 20 Efimir, Evtim, Evtimiya, Momchil
• 21 Maksim
• 25 Grigor

February

• 1 Trifon
• 3 Simeon
• 6 Svetla, Svetlana, Svetlomir
• 10 Haralampi, Valentin, Valentina
• 13 Evlogi

March

• 1 Evdokiya, Marta, Martin, Martina
• 4 Gerasim
• 10 Galina
• 11 Bozhidar *, Bozhidara *, Dora *, Teodor *, Teodora *, Todor *
• 13 Nikifor
• 17 Alexi
• 22 Rosen, Rositsa
• 23 Lidiya
• 25 Blaga, Blago, Blagovest, Blagovesta, Blaguna, Evangelina, Mariyana
• 28 Albena, Boyan, Boyana, Boyka, Boyko

April

• 15 Lazar *, Lazo *
• 16 Bozhan *, Bozhana *, Violeta *, Vurban *, Vurbana *, Yasen *, Yasna *, Yavor *, Zdravka *, Zdravko *
• 18 Viktor, Viktoriya
• 23 Velichka *, Velichko *, Velin *, Velina *
• 25 Marko
• 30 Toma *, Tomislav *, Tomislava *

May

• 1 Ermen, Ermena, Maya
• 2 Boriana, Boris, Borislav, Borislava
• 5 Irina, Mira
• 6 Georgi, Georgiya, Gergana, Gyuro
• 11 Kiril, Kirila, Metodi
• 21 Elena, Konstantin, Kosta, Kostadin, Kostadinka, Lenko, Stoyan
• 30 Emiliya

June

• 1 Spas *, Spaska *
• 5 Doroteia *
• 7 Valeri, Valeria
• 22 Goryan, Goryana
• 24 Enio, Yanita, Yanka, Yanko
• 25 Asen *, Chavdar *
• 26 David
• 29 Kamen, Pavel, Petar, Petra, Petrana
• 30 Apostol

July

• 1 Damyan, Damyana, Kozma, Kuzman
• 7 Nedelcho, Nedelya, Nedyalka, Nedyalko
• 11 Oleg, Olga
• 15 Vlada, Vladena, Vladimir
• 16 Yulian, Yuliana, Yuliya
• 17 Marin, Marina
• 18 Emil, Emilian
• 20 Ilina, Iliya, Ilian, Iliyana, Ilko
• 22 Lena, Magda, Magdalena, Miglena
• 25 Ana, Yana
• 26 Paraskeva
• 27 Dobra, Dobri, Dobrina, Dobrinka, Pancho, Panka
• 29 Kalin

August

• 8 Emil, Emilian, Emiliya
• 15 Mariya
• 20 Samuil
• 26 Adrian, Adriana, Adriyan, Adriyana, Natali, Nataliya
• 29 Anastas, Anastasi, Anastasiya
• 30 Aleksandar, Aleksandra

September

• 1 Simeon, Simona
• 5 Elisaveta, Hari, Zahari
• 14 Krustan, Krustina, Krustyo, Stavri
• 16 Lyudmil, Lyudmila
• 17 Lyuba, Lyuben, Lyubomir, Lyubov, Nadezhda, Nadya, Sevda, Sofiya, Vera, Vyara
• 25 Sergei

October

• 14 Pencho, Penka, Petka, Petko
• 18 Zlata, Zlatan, Zlatka, Zlatko, Zlatomir
• 26 Dimitar, Dimitrina, Mitko
• 27 Nestor

November

• 8 Angel, Gavrail, Gavril, Mihaela, Mihail, Ognyan, Ognyana, Plamen, Plamena, Rada, Radka, Radko, Rafail, Raia, Raika, Raina, Rangel
• 11 Minka, Minko, Viktor, Viktoriya
• 14 Filio, Filip, Filipa
• 16 Matei
• 23 Aleko, Aleksandar, Aleksandra
• 24 Ekaterina, Katerina, Katina, Katya
• 25 Kliment, Klimentina
• 26 Stilyan, Stilyana
• 30 Andrei

December

• 4 Varvara
• 5 Sava, Silva, Silvana, Silviya, Stanislav
• 6 Nikola, Nikolai, Nina
• 9 Ana, Anna, Anushka, Nusha
• 14 Snezhana
• 17 Dana, Danail, Danaila, Daniel, Daniela
• 20 Ignat
• 24 Evgeni, Evgeniya
• 25 Hristina, Hristo
• 26 Iosif
• 27 Stanimir, Stanka, Stanko, Stefan, Stefka, Stoycho

*date varies each year depending on the date of Easter (Orthodox)

External links

• Bulgarian Name Days