Day of the week
Friday
“Friday's child is loving and giving.”
Named for Frige, matched to Venus — the Latin is dies Veneris, Venus's day — which is why the plate above is of Venus.
The line above is Friday's from “Monday's Child” as it is usually printed today, as given in Iona and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951).
The rhyme was first printed by A. E. Bray in A Description of the Part of Devonshire Bordering on the Tamar and the Tavy (1836), and is older than that in speech. Her line for Friday reads: “Friday's child is loving and giving,”
This is folklore recorded from oral tradition, not a claim about anyone born on a Friday.
Where the name comes from
Old English frigedæg, Frigga's day, takes its name from Frige, the genitive of Frigu, the Germanic goddess of married love. It is a West Germanic translation of the Latin dies Veneris, the day of the planet Venus. The match is not a close one: in Germanic religion Freya corresponds more closely in character to Venus than Frigg does, but it is Frigg, not Freya, whose name the day carries.
Word history from the Online Etymology Dictionary's entry for Friday.
Which dates are a Friday in 2026
52 dates fall on a Friday in 2026.