Is Presidents Day the nation's most confusing holiday? States seem to have as many names for it and ideas about whom to honor as there have been presidents. The federal government doesn't even recognize Monday as Presidents Day — it's officially Washington's Birthday, honoring the first president and the original American yardstick for measuring greatness. The holiday hasn't been celebrated on Washington's actual birthday of Feb. 22 — or any other president's — for more than 50 years. Presidents Day became the popular name after the holiday was fixed to a Monday. The result is a jumble, causing some people to yearn for the holiday to just celebrate Washington again. “The concept of Presidents Day is a confusing mishmash of ideas,” Hunter Abell, a Republican state legislator from Washington state, said recently. "By celebrating all the presidents, I believe that we inadvertently celebrate none.” Abell's interest is more than academic — he wants his state to rename its Presidents Day holiday and made his remarks during a hearing on that proposal. “Sometimes Washington Lincoln or Lincoln Washington day because the birthday of Abraham Lincoln is only ten days apart from Washington’s birthday on February 22, Lincoln’s birthday on February 12,” Randy Sowell, an Archivist with the Harry S, Truman Library in Independence, Missouri said. “So, to honor both of them they sometimes call it Lincoln Washington day or President’s Day.” First in war, first in peace, first with a holiday The federal holiday for Washington started in 1879, but the current date was fixed by law as of 1971. States, of course, have been left to their own devices for decades. Thirty-four still use some form of Washington's name in their laws, while 19 use some form of Presidents Day. A few use both, while California law goes with “the third Monday in February.” Forty-seven states will celebrate a public holiday on Monday. Indiana and Georgia celebrate Washington by giving state workers the day after Christmas off. Delaware has no holiday. In 2009, its lawmakers started giving state employees “two floating holidays” instead of honoring individual presidents or having a Presidents Day, according to the state archives. “There is a Missouri holiday on May 8 that applies to some government offices I believe, on Truman’s birthday, May 8,” Sowell said. “In the state of Missouri, it’s recognized as an occasion.” What's in a name? Plenty, some say Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia wants to return to a federal holiday on his birthday. Its website says Washington’s character and accomplishments shouldn’t be “muddled” by a “vague” holiday. A dozen states celebrating Washington by name make him share the day with someone else. In Alabama, Washington shares the spotlight with friend-turned-rival Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence. In Arkansas, it's Daisy Gaston Bates, a civil rights leader best known for her work to integrate Little Rock's Central High School in 1957. Most often, it’s Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War president who sometimes outranks even Washington among historians for keeping the Union intact. Fourteen states have a separate holiday just for Lincoln. Most are on Honest Abe's Feb. 12 birthday. Indiana honors him with a day off for state employees on the day after Thanksgiving — which Lincoln is often credited with starting in 1863. Other presidents have their days, too A few states have special days for presidents identified with them: Herbert Hoover in Iowa, Dwight Eisenhower in Kansas, Harry Truman in Missouri, Lyndon Johnson in Texas, and John F. Kennedy in Massachusetts. On JFK’s May 29 birthday, his home state also honors favorite sons John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Calvin Coolidge, who was a Vermont farm boy before becoming Massachusetts' governor and, later, the country's 30th president. Since 1958 in Kentucky, Jan. 30 has been Franklin D. Roosevelt Day, though the president who guided the country out of the Great Depression and through most of World War II was a New Yorker. In Oklahoma, a Republican state senator is proposing a new holiday for Nov. 5, the anniversary of last year's presidential election, to celebrate President Donald J. Trump Day. What if you had a holiday and people forgot? A presidential day doesn't necessarily inspire public fanfare. Take Herbert Hoover, whose Depression-marked White House work gets low marks from many historians, though he is highly regarded for non-presidential humanitarian work. Iowa set aside a day for him in 1969, but it appears to get little notice outside Cedar County, the home of his presidential library. “Most Iowans are not aware there is a Hoover Day,” said Leo Landis, the state historical society's curator, who acknowledged in an email that he once was among them, despite living in Iowa for more than 45 years. First in reenactments? Presidential impersonators pop up in hundreds of