It is called Christmas Island because an English sea captain named it after the day he sailed past it: Christmas Day, 25 December 1643. The name has stuck ever since, even though the island itself is a tropical place far from any snowy holiday scene.

Quick origin story

  • In 1643, Captain William Mynors of the East India Company passed an isolated island in the Indian Ocean on 25 December and recorded it for Europeans.
  • Because the sighting happened on Christmas Day, he simply named it “Christmas Island.”
  • Earlier sailors had probably seen the island before, but no recorded European name existed, so Mynors’ Christmas-inspired label became the official one.

Not about religion, just the date

The name does not come from local religious traditions or special Christmas customs on the island; it is purely a reference to the calendar date of that voyage. Permanent settlement only began in the late 19th century, centuries after it was named, driven mainly by phosphate mining rather than by any Christmas-related story.

TL;DR: It’s called Christmas Island because an English captain sailed by on 25 December 1643 and named it for Christmas Day, not for any religious or festive reason.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.