Bulgarian Name Days: The Complete Guide for British Expats

Today's Bulgarian name day

The widget below detects today's date and surfaces the name day, if any. Most days do have one; the Bulgarian calendar is densely populated. Click through to read the saint's story or scroll to the etiquette section if you need to know what to bring before lunch.

What a Bulgarian name day actually is

A name day is the feast day of the Orthodox saint after whom your first name is patterned. Every Bulgarian who shares a given name celebrates on the same date across the entire country. It is the closest thing the country has to a second birthday system.

If your first name is Ivan, your name day falls on Ivanovden, 7 January, the feast of Saint John the Baptist. If your name is Maria, you celebrate on 15 August, the Dormition of the Theotokos. George becomes Georgi and celebrates Gergyovden on 6 May, which is also Bulgaria's Day of the Armed Forces and a public holiday: a useful clue that name days are not minor.

The cleanest way to explain it to a British brain: imagine a second birthday system layered on top of the Orthodox calendar, where everyone who shares a name celebrates on the same day. Every Ivan in Bulgaria, all on 7 January. Every Maria, on 15 August. The supermarket bakery counters know the calendar better than the customers do, and they stock up accordingly.

Why every Bulgarian has one

The tradition runs through Orthodox Christianity. When a Bulgarian child is baptised, they receive a name from the saint's calendar, sometimes literally the saint whose feast falls closest to the baptism date. The name carries the saint's protection through life, and the annual feast day of that saint becomes the person's name day. Even Bulgarians who name children after grandparents (which is most of them) are still working from a pool of names that were themselves saints' names a few generations back.

The system is older than the Bulgarian state in its modern form. It predates the 1908 declaration of independence, the 1944 communist takeover, and the 1989 transition. It survived the communist period almost untouched because the names themselves are secular by daily use, even when their saint origins are explicit. A Bulgarian named Konstantin in 1973 went by Kosta to friends and Kostadin on paperwork; the religious roots were quietly inherited regardless of what the Communist Party thought about Orthodox feasts.

How many name days does the calendar carry?

Counts vary by source. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church's liturgical calendar lists a saint for every day of the year, but only a fraction of those translate into popular name days with a meaningful population of celebrants. The realistic working number is around 30 major name days covering perhaps 80 percent of Bulgarian first names, plus a long tail of minor saints and variants.

Some dates are huge: Ivanovden (7 Jan), Gergyovden (6 May), Bogoroditsa (15 Aug), Dimitrovden (26 Oct), Nikulden (6 Dec), Stefanovden (27 Dec). Others are tucked into the smaller corners of the year and may pass without an expat noticing unless someone they know personally is celebrating.

Name-day clusters: one saint, many names

The single most useful concept for understanding the Bulgarian system is the name cluster. One saint's feast typically generates a cluster of related given names that all celebrate on that date: the formal name, its feminine form, diminutives, and historical variants. Gergyovden (6 May) covers Georgi, Gergana, Ginka, Gancho, Galya, Galin, Gosho, Zhoro, Gana, Genko and a dozen others. Konstantin & Elena (21 May) covers Konstantin, Elena, Kosta, Kostadin, Dinko, Stanimir, Kuncho, Lenka, Stanka, Trayko, plus rarer variants.

This explains why an expat might see 21 separate name-day variants celebrating on a single Tuesday: it is not 21 different saints, it is one saint with 21 culturally-derived given names. The cluster system is why a hairdresser in Plovdiv called Dinko and a maths teacher in Veliko Tarnovo called Konstantin are both celebrating Konstantinovden on 21 May.

The etiquette British expats keep getting wrong

Almost every British expat in Bulgaria gets the name-day etiquette backwards in their first year. The mechanics are the inverse of a British workplace birthday. Here is how it actually works.

The celebrant brings the treats (the British-counterintuitive bit)

On a name day, the person celebrating brings the food to the office. Not the colleagues, not the friends, not the boss. The Maria whose name day it is turns up to work with banitsa, a sponge cake, sometimes a bottle of rakija for the senior colleagues, and circulates them around the desks. You congratulate her, eat the cake, get back to work.

This is the precise inverse of a British workplace birthday, where the team chips in for a card and a Colin the Caterpillar, and the birthday person is the passive recipient. On a Bulgarian name day at work, the celebrant is the host. The logic: it is their day, they are proud of it, they share their good fortune. Refusing the cake is mildly rude. Accepting and saying "честит имен ден" (chestit imen den, happy name day) is the entire transaction.

Family lunches invert this

When you are invited to someone's home for their name day, you bring presents, flowers, cake, wine, the works. The celebrant is now the host of a meal rather than the office-rounds gift-giver, and the guests reciprocate by arriving with their arms full. Showing up empty-handed to a Bulgarian name-day lunch is the closest you will get to genuine social disgrace.

The mental model: public celebration means the celebrant feeds the room. Private celebration means the guests feed the celebrant. Get that backwards and your Bulgarian mother-in-law will mention it for a decade.

What to bring to a family lunch (concrete list)

• Cake from a proper bakery, not the supermarket aisle. Sladkarnitsa Neviasta, Tortolandia, or a local family-run sladkarnitsa. Around €15-25 for something that serves eight.
• Banitsa from a dedicated banichara if you can find one. The Lazaki chain is the dependable default; village bakeries often beat it on quality if you know one.
• Flowers if the celebrant is a woman. Odd numbers only. Even numbers are for funerals. This is non-negotiable; if the florist tries to bundle 12 roses for you, ask for 11 or 13.
• Wine or rakija if the celebrant is a man. A bottle of Targovishte Traminer (€8-12) is a safe wine. For rakija, anything from Peshtera or Sungurlare in the €12-18 range is welcomed. Homemade rakija from a friend's cellar beats anything shop-bought, if you have a bottle to spare.
• A small thoughtful gift for close family: a book, a scarf, something personal. Not cash; cash is for weddings and christenings.

Greetings and timing

The standard greeting is "честит имен ден" (chestit imen den). Say it on the day itself, ideally in person, or by phone, or by message. The phrase is universal: it works for the office Ivan, your neighbour Petar, and the cousin in Burgas you barely know.

If you walk into the office and everyone has already greeted the celebrant, say it anyway. The repetition is welcome rather than awkward. It is not a punchline that loses force on the fifteenth telling; it is an acknowledgement.

Phone calls to distant relatives are still expected, especially from the older generation. If your Bulgarian partner has an aunt in Kyustendil whose name day falls on Tuesday, expect a call to be made or received. Social media has eased some of this pressure: a Facebook post tagged with the celebrant's name now counts as a valid greeting in most circles, and the algorithm is genuinely useful at surfacing whose day it is.

If you forget until the day after, apologise warmly, send a message, and follow up with a banitsa or a bottle when you next see them. Late is fine. Silent is not.

Regional variations

Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna: name days are largely a workplace affair, often capped with a lunch at a mehana with close friends. Office cake circulation in the morning, restaurant dinner with six people in the evening. Reservations book up early on the big saint days, particularly Ivanovden and Gergyovden.

Smaller towns and villages: expect a full family gathering, often with relatives travelling in. The lunch can stretch four or five hours, with multiple toasts, and the rakija will appear before the soup. If you are invited to a village name day, clear your afternoon.

Black Sea coast: the resort of Sveti Konstantin i Elena, just north of Varna, is named for Saints Constantine and Helena, whose feast falls on 21 May. Locals along the coast take Konstantinovden seriously, and the resort itself sees a small uptick in Bulgarian visitors marking the day.

Rhodopes and Pirin: tighter, more community-driven celebrations. The lunch sometimes spills into the next day, with leftover banitsa for breakfast and a slow second round of coffee and rakija. Pomak villages observe slightly different patterns reflecting the local mix of Christian and Muslim heritage; worth asking before assuming.

The 30-day calendar of major Bulgarian name days

The major Bulgarian name days that cover the bulk of given-name celebrations. Fixed-date days first, then the movable Easter-relative feasts. Scale: huge (entire offices empty for lunch), large (most teams will have someone celebrating), medium (a handful per workplace), small (niche).

Movable Easter-anchored name days

Sources cross-referenced from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (bg-patriarshia.bg), Nestful's Bulgarian name-days calendar, and Wikipedia's Trifon Zarezan and Bulgarian name day entries. Where the Church and folk calendars disagreed (Trifonovden 1 Feb vs 14 Feb, Cyril & Methodius 11 May vs 24 May), the Orthodox liturgical date is given here, with the folk / civic date noted in the saint stories below.

Famous Bulgarians for each major name

When an expat sees "Ivanovden honours Saint John the Baptist and is celebrated by men named Ivan", the abstract name lands more concretely if you also know two or three famous Ivans. Here are the figures Bulgarians actually reference when a given name comes up in conversation.

Saints' origin stories

The saints behind the major Bulgarian name days. Short, accurate, and focused on the parts Bulgarians actually reference. Each card includes the bare hagiography, the Bulgarian folk overlay, and what an expat is likely to see on the day.

Saint John the Baptist

Ivanovden · 7 January

Cousin of Jesus, son of the priest Zechariah and the elderly Elizabeth. Lived as an ascetic in the Judean wilderness, preached repentance and baptised in the Jordan. Beheaded by Herod Antipas at the urging of Salome around AD 30. Josephus mentions him independently, making John one of the firmest historical figures in the New Testament.

In Bulgaria, the day belongs to everyone named Ivan, Ivana, Yoan, Yoana — by far the largest single name cluster in the country. Half your colleagues' phones will ring all day. Open-house visiting is the form; walking in with banitsa and rakija and saying "chestit imen den" is enough.

Theophany (Bogoyavlenie)

Yordanovden · 6 January

The feast commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John the Baptist — the moment when the Trinity was publicly manifested. Yordan and Yordanka as Bulgarian names honour the river itself, sanctified by the baptism. One of the twelve great Orthodox feasts and older than Christmas as a Christian celebration in the East.

The Great Blessing of the Waters is performed everywhere. In towns on rivers, lakes or the Black Sea coast, the priest throws a wooden cross into icy water and young men leap in to retrieve it. Kalofer's version, danced in the river itself, is the most photographed. The Shumen and Varna press cover it heavily.

Saint Anthony the Great

Antonovden · 17 January

A wealthy young Egyptian who, hearing the Gospel verse "sell what you have and give to the poor", did exactly that and withdrew to the desert around AD 270. Spent decades in increasingly remote solitude, assailed by demonic visions (the Temptation of St Anthony in Western art). His biography by Athanasius founded the literary tradition of Christian monasticism.

In Bulgarian folk practice Antonovden and the following day Atanasovden are paired as winter health-keeping days, with strong associations to protection against plague and the "babini dni" cycle of women's winter feasts. Less public ceremony than the bigger name days — quiet family lunches for any Antón, Antoniya, Doncho or Donka.

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

Atanasovden · 18 January

The patriarch who defended the full divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and for forty years after. Exiled five times by successive emperors who sided with the Arians. Earned the title "Pillar of the Church" for stubborn doctrinal clarity. Also wrote the biography of Anthony, which is why the two feasts sit next to each other in the calendar.

Folk tradition reframes Atanas as the saint who "brings summer in the middle of winter": a Bulgarian saying has summer putting on a white shirt and going out into the snow on Atanasovden, marking the symbolic turn toward spring. Open houses for the very many Bulgarians named Atanas, Nasko, Atanaska or Naska.

Saint Tryphon (Trifon Zarezan)

Trifonovden · 1 (or 14) February

A third-century shepherd boy from Phrygia martyred under the emperor Decius around AD 250. The hagiography credits him with healing the daughter of the emperor Gordian by exorcism. Patron of gardeners, vine-dressers and falconers.

The Bulgarian vine-pruning day. The ritual sits on top of the pre-Christian Thracian wine cult of Dionysus, the syncretism openly acknowledged. In Melnik, Plovdiv, Sungurlare and across the wine-growing south, a "king of the vines" is crowned and the first symbolic cuts are made before noon, with rakija. The Orthodox date is 1 February; the secular vineyard tradition is widely held on 14 February to align with Valentine's Day.

Saint Theodore of Tyron

Todorovden · First Saturday of Lent

A young Roman soldier from Pontus martyred around AD 306 for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods and, in the more dramatic version, for burning down a temple of Cybele. Venerated jointly with Theodore Stratelates "the General"; modern scholarship suggests Stratelates may be a later hagiographic doubling of Tiron.

The Bulgarian horseman's feast. Horses are washed, decorated with red tassels and ribbons, blessed by the priest, then raced across a village field. Folk overlay is strong: half Christian martyr, half horse-god. In villages around Shumen, Sliven and the Thracian plain, actual horse races still happen on actual fields; the Sofia and Plovdiv equivalents are staged for cameras.

The Forty Holy Martyrs

Mladentsi · 9 March

Forty Roman legionaries of the Twelfth Legion, stationed at Sebaste in Armenia, condemned around AD 320 under the emperor Licinius for refusing to renounce Christ. Stripped naked and made to stand overnight on a frozen lake; warm baths were placed on the shore to tempt apostates. One broke; a pagan guard, seeing visions of crowns over the remaining thirty-nine, stripped and joined them. All forty died.

Day of agricultural awakening. Women bake forty small sweet breads (mladenchета), often glazed with honey and walnuts, and give them to neighbours. Storks return; the first day men may begin field work. Small sweet breads appear in bakeries and on doorsteps.

The Annunciation

Blagoveshtenie · 25 March

Commemorates the Archangel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). The moment of the Incarnation, exactly nine months before Christmas. One of the twelve great Orthodox feasts and one of the oldest, attested from at least the fifth century.

Day of awakening: snakes and lizards emerge from winter dormancy, swallows return, the first cuckoo calls. Households perform symbolic noise-making (banging pots, ringing bells) at dawn to drive away snakes and disease for the coming year. The only fish day inside the strict Lenten fast, packed-out churches if you go.

Saint George the Victorious

Gergyovden · 6 May

A Roman soldier from Cappadocia martyred under Diocletian around AD 303 for refusing to recant his Christianity. The dragon arrives much later, in the medieval Western Golden Legend. The historicity of the man is generally accepted; the dragon, less so. Eastern Christianity venerated him as a soldier-saint long before the dragon attached.

The single biggest name day in Bulgaria: somewhere around 200,000 Bulgarians named Georgi or Gergana. Also Day of the Bulgarian Army and a public holiday. A whole lamb is roasted, ideally over an open fire. Schools, banks and government offices closed. Military parade in Sofia. Smoke rising from every other garden. If a Bulgarian friend named Georgi has not invited you to lunch, you don't know them well enough.

Saints Constantine and Helena

Kostadinovden / Elenovden · 21 May

Constantine the Great (c. 272-337) was the Roman emperor who legalised Christianity by the Edict of Milan in 313, convened the Council of Nicaea in 325, and was baptised on his deathbed. His mother Helena (c. 248-330) made a celebrated pilgrimage to the Holy Land in her late seventies and is credited in tradition with discovering the True Cross. Both canonised as Equal-to-the-Apostles by the Orthodox Church.

Beyond the major name day, the date is bound up with the nestinari, the fire-dancers of the Strandzha region. In villages around Bulgari, dancers carry icons of Constantine and Helena barefoot across glowing embers. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Black Sea resort Sveti Konstantin i Elena (north of Varna) takes its name from the feast — most expats stay there without ever connecting it.

Saints Cyril and Methodius

11 May (saints) / 24 May (civic)

Ninth-century brothers from Thessaloniki, Cyril (Constantine, c. 827-869) and Methodius (c. 815-885) were Byzantine scholar-monks sent to evangelise the Slavs of Great Moravia. They devised the Glagolitic alphabet to translate scripture; their disciples, expelled from Moravia after Methodius's death, were received by Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria. The Cyrillic alphabet (named for Cyril, devised by his disciples in Bulgaria, most likely Clement of Ohrid) was developed and spread from there to Serbia, Kievan Rus and the rest of the Slavic Orthodox world.

24 May is the Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture and of the Slavonic Alphabet — a national public holiday, the day most loaded with national feeling in the entire calendar. The brothers are claimed by Bulgaria as the founders of Slavic literacy. There is a long-running and good-natured argument with North Macedonia about precedence. Parades in every Bulgarian town centre with schoolchildren carrying letters of the alphabet on placards.

Saints Peter and Paul

Petrovden · 29 June

The two chief apostles, jointly commemorated. Peter, the Galilean fisherman who became the rock of the church, was crucified upside-down in Rome under Nero around AD 64. Paul, the educated Pharisee who persecuted the early church before his Damascus-road conversion, was beheaded as a Roman citizen around the same time. The joint feast on 29 June is among the oldest in the Christian calendar, attested from at least the third century.

End of the Apostles' Fast. Start of the harvest season. Peter holds the keys of paradise, and the first apples and pears are blessed in church before being eaten. Name-day lunches for the many Petars, Pavlins, Penkas and Polinas. Smaller village festivals with horos and roasted lamb in Strandzha and the Rhodopes.

Saint Elijah the Prophet

Ilinden · 20 July

An Old Testament prophet of the ninth century BC. Challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, called down fire from heaven, taken up alive into the sky in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2). Uniquely among Old Testament figures, venerated as a saint in the Eastern church with a major feast day, partly because of his appearance alongside Moses at the Transfiguration.

The day of thunder. The folk overlay is unusually transparent: Elijah's chariot of fire rolling across the sky is identified with thunder, and the prophet functions as a Christianised version of the pre-Christian Slavic thunder god Perun. Villagers traditionally avoid field work on Ilinden for fear of attracting lightning. The 1903 Ilinden Uprising was timed to this feast, adding patriotic resonance.

Saint Marina of Antioch

Marinden · 17 July

Marina of Antioch (Margaret in the Western tradition) was martyred in the late third or early fourth century. The legend has her swallowed by a dragon and bursting out unharmed; modern hagiography treats the dragon as later folkloric embellishment but accepts a historical martyr. Hugely popular in the medieval West and East, patron of women in childbirth.

Sits in the middle of the "Hot Days" (Goreshtnitsi), the three days 15-17 July when, in folk reckoning, the year is at its hottest and most dangerous. Marina is invoked specifically against snakes. Also associated with healing springs (ayazma), particularly in the Rhodopes. Bulgarians genuinely refrain from major outdoor work on these three days.

Dormition of the Theotokos

Golyama Bogoroditsa · 15 August

The Orthodox feast of the death and bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary. The tradition, not found in scripture but attested from at least the fifth century, holds that Mary died surrounded by the apostles, and her body was taken up into heaven three days later. Preceded by a strict two-week fast.

The patronal feast of the Bachkovo, Rila and Troyan monasteries, three of the most important Orthodox houses in the country. Massive pilgrimage to all three. Bachkovo brings out the miraculous icon of the Virgin in procession. Mariya is the most common Bulgarian female name — this and Ivanovden are the year's two biggest name days. Roads to the monasteries jam.

The Beheading of John the Baptist

Sechenovden · 29 August

The Gospels (Mark 6, Matthew 14) record that John was imprisoned by Herod Antipas for denouncing his marriage to Herodias, his brother's wife. At Herod's birthday banquet, Herodias's daughter (named Salome by Josephus, not the Gospels) danced so well that Herod offered her anything. Prompted by her mother, she asked for John's head on a platter. Josephus confirms John's execution by Herod independently.

A strict fast and a day of folk taboos: nothing red is eaten (no tomatoes, peppers, watermelon), nothing round is cut, no knife on food if avoidable, in symbolic mourning. Sombre rather than celebratory. Not a day to wish anyone "chestit imen den".

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Krastovden · 14 September

Commemorates Helena's discovery of the True Cross in Jerusalem around AD 326, and the later recovery of relics of the Cross from the Persians by the emperor Heraclius in 629. On both occasions the Cross was "exalted", raised before the people. One of the twelve great Orthodox feasts and a strict fast day even though it falls outside any fasting season.

Marks the symbolic turn of the agricultural year toward autumn: grape harvest in full swing, first wines starting to ferment. Day associated with basil (bosilek), which is blessed in church and tucked into clothes and over doorways. Name day for Krastyo, Krasimir, Krasimira. Bunches of basil handed out after the liturgy.

Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki

Dimitrovden · 26 October

A Roman officer in Thessaloniki, martyred around AD 306 under Diocletian or Galerius for refusing to recant Christianity. Killed in the city's baths with spears. His tomb at Thessaloniki became one of the great pilgrimage sites of the Byzantine world. Like George, he is a soldier-saint and is iconographically paired with him: George on a white horse spearing a dragon, Demetrius on a red horse spearing a man.

The unofficial "second patron" of Bulgaria, with George first. The Thessaloniki connection matters: the city was for centuries a major Bulgarian cultural centre, the birthplace of Cyril and Methodius. Dimitrovden closes the agricultural year in the way Gergyovden opens it: 6 May to 26 October is the traditional shepherd's contract, with wages paid at Dimitrovden and flocks brought down. First snow on higher peaks is called "Dimiter's beard".

Saint Andrew the First-Called

Andreevden · 30 November

Andrew the apostle, brother of Peter, was the first disciple called by Christ (hence Protokletos, "First-Called"). Tradition has him preaching in Scythia and along the Black Sea coast, giving him a Bulgarian connection through the Pontic mission. Crucified on an X-shaped cross at Patras in Greece — the saltire that became his emblem and the basis of the Scottish flag.

Start of the "wolf days" (Vulchi praznitsi) in folk reckoning — the dark winter weeks when wolves come down to the villages. Women boil a mix of grains (corn, wheat, beans, lentils) overnight on 29 November so that on 30 November the day "grows" by a grain, the symbolic lengthening of daylight after the solstice. A handful is thrown up the chimney for the wolves. Mixed-grain mush appears on older households' tables.

Saint Nicholas of Myra

Nikulden · 6 December

Fourth-century bishop of Myra in Lycia (modern southern Turkey). Famous in his lifetime for charity and posthumously for miracles, particularly involving sailors and children. The Western Father Christmas tradition descends from him via Sinterklaas; the Eastern Orthodox veneration has stayed closer to the historical bishop. Patron of sailors, fishermen, merchants and children. His relics are at Bari in southern Italy, translated there from Myra in 1087.

The great winter family table. Carp is the dish, traditionally cooked whole and stuffed (sharan po nikulski), because Nicholas's miracles of saving sailors made him patron of all water and its creatures. The fish on the table is a symbolic exchange: the carp gives its life so the family is protected through the dark months. The last major feast before Christmas — after 6 December the country turns visibly toward Christmas. In Shumen and along the Black Sea coast, Nicholas is patron of the local fishermen's brotherhoods.

Frequently asked questions

The questions British expats most commonly arrive at after their first year of encountering name days.

Related Shumen.UK guides

For practical Bulgarian phrases including the greeting "честит имен ден" and dozens of other conversational anchors, see the Shumen.UK phrasebook. For an overview of Bulgaria's cultural calendar including the festivals layered on top of the name-day system, see the cultural calendar. For a long-term view of how to live well in Bulgaria as a British expat, the full guides hub brings everything together.

Sources

This guide cross-references the Bulgarian Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (bg-patriarshia.bg), Nestful's Bulgarian name-days calendar, Imen-den.net, and Wikipedia's entries for each saint and each major Bulgarian historical figure named. Saint hagiography draws on Butler's Lives of the Saints and the Eastern Synaxarion; Bulgarian folk overlay draws on Dimitar Marinov's Folk Faith and Religious Customs and Hristo Vakarelski's Ethnography of Bulgaria. Where Orthodox liturgical and folk-calendar sources disagreed (the 1 vs 14 February Trifonovden split, 11 vs 24 May Cyril & Methodius), the Orthodox liturgical date is given as primary with the folk / civic alternative noted in context.

Last reviewed May 2026.