National Bodhi Day – April 9, 2027

History of National Bodhi Day

Bodhi is a unisex name of Sanskrit origin, which means ‘enlightenment,’ ‘awakening,’ or ‘understanding of true nature.’ In Buddhism, it’s a spiritual name that refers to a state of nirvana and freedom from hate, greed, and ego. The concept also encompasses a person’s liberation from the perpetual cycle of reincarnation and the termination of suffering through enlightenment and awakening. Bodhi is described as the absence of ego and self-centeredness. And when the state of Bodhi is achieved, the karmic journey ends with nirvana, where one rids oneself of what Buddhists describe as the three psychological evils namely, greed, or desire, anger, and delusion.

Additionally, the Bodhi tree is the specific sacred fig tree under which the founder of Buddhism — Siddhartha Gautama Buddha — is said to have achieved enlightenment after about 50 days of meditation. Other spelling variations of the name include Bodie, Bode, and Body.

Prior to 2010, Bodhi was so unpopular that it didn’t even make the list of the top 1,000 most popular names in the U.S. The name’s ranking in 2010 was 907 in the list of most popular male names but once again dropped to 920 in the following year. However, as the years progressed, Bodhi increased in popularity as a male name and finally reached its highest popularity in 2021, ranking at 284. Within that year, there were 1,206 births with the name Bodhi, accounting for 0.065% of total male births. Bodhi is not within the top 1,000 female names, meaning no records are available to gauge its level of popularity.