Recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) are newly generated T cells that need to undergo post-thymic maturation to gain functional competency and enter the long-lived naïve T cell pool. The mechanism of T cell maturation remains incompletely understood. Previously, we demonstrated that the transcriptional repressor NKAP is required for T cell maturation. As NKAP associates with histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), we examined whether HDAC3 is also required for T cell maturation. While thymic populations are similar in CD4-cre HDAC3 conditional knockout (cKO) mice compared to wild-type (WT) mice, however, the peripheral numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are dramatically decreased. In the periphery, the majority of HDAC3-deficient naïve T cells are RTEs, indicating a block in T cell maturation. CD55 upregulation during T cell maturation is substantially decreased in HDAC3-deficient T cells. Consistent with a block in functional maturation, HDAC3-deficient peripheral T cells have a defect in TNF licensing after TCR/CD28 stimulation. CD4-cre HDAC3 cKO mice do not have a defect in intrathymic migration, thymic egress, T cell survival or homeostasis. In the periphery, similar to immature NKAP-deficient peripheral T cells, HDAC3-deficient peripheral T cells were bound by IgM and complement proteins, leading to the elimination of these cells. In addition, HDAC3-deficient T cells display decreases in the sialic acid modifications on the cell surface that recruit natural IgM to initiate the classical complement pathway. Therefore, HDAC3 is required for T cell maturation.