According to China's National Citizen Identity Information Center, 5,547,124 people in China were born on January 1, or Yuandan, and more than 6,000 were named after it.In Chinese, "yuan" means "the beginning," and "dan" means "day." Thus, "Yuandan" means "the beginning day," or the first day of a year, the Beijing Evening News reported.Among the thousands of Yuandans, 618 people have the surname Yuan and first name Dan, while 5,659 people simply have the first name of Yuandan. There are 1,735 people not only born on Yuandan, but also named after it.

From 1949, when January 1 of solar calendar was formally confirmed as New Year's Day, the number of people named Yuandan increased significantly.

根据中国国家居民身份证信息中心报道：在中国有5547124人出生在1月1日或元旦，其中有6000人的名字都是用元旦来取名的。北京晚间新闻报道：在中国，“元”的意思是“开始”，“旦”的意思是“日子”，因此“元旦”就意味着“新的一天”或者是新年的第一天。在这成千名元旦节出生的人当中，有618个人姓元，取名叫旦，然而有5659个人的名字都含元旦。另外有1735个人虽然不是出生在元旦，但仍然用元旦来取名。

自1949年，国历1月1日被正式确立为新年第一天起，用元旦来取名的人的数量就明显增加了。