Padraic
Masculine · “a nobleman”
The man who read the proclamation outside the Post Office in 1916 signed himself Padraic. He had been born Patrick, took the Irish form as an adult along with the language, and was shot in Kilmainham fourteen days after the rising he had led was over.
How old is the name Padraic?
Padraic first appears in US birth records in 1955 — 70 years ago. The typical Padraic alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 900 people named Padraic are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Padraic most popular?
Padraic peaked in 1982, reaching #1654 nationally. See the whole 1982 chart.
Where it comes from
From a Latin word for a Roman nobleman to Padraic
The story of Padraic
Pearse was a barrister, a schoolmaster and a poet before he was anything else, and he ran a bilingual school on the argument that a language dies in the classroom before it dies anywhere else. The rising he led lasted six days and was militarily hopeless, which he knew. What changed everything was the executions afterwards: fifteen men shot over ten days, including a man carried to the yard in a chair because his wounds would not let him stand, and Irish opinion turned completely within a month.
Meaning
a nobleman, one of the patricians
The Latin word behind Patrick means a member of the founding families of Rome. The Irish forms — Padraig with a g and Padraic with a c — are both in use and both carry an accent on the first vowel that English records do not print. Without it the first syllable is read short, and the name becomes something no Irish speaker would recognize.
How the name formed
- a Latin word for a Roman nobleman
- a fifth-century missionary carries it to Ireland
- Irish produces Padraig and Padraic
- a schoolmaster and poet takes the Irish form
- appears in American records in the 1950s
Related forms: Padraig · Patrick · Padraig
Pronouncing Padraic
PAW-drig
Two syllables, stress at the front, with a long first vowel that the missing accent would mark. English readers produce puh-DRAY-ik, which is three syllables and none of them right.
Nicknames for Padraic
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1955
- Most boys named
- 198236 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1654reached in 1982
- Change vs 2020
- 0.0%5 in 2023, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Padraic in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Padraig in Irish — spelling variant
- Patrick in English — same name
- Padraig in Scottish Gaelic — same name
Padraics among us
people named Padraic are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Padraic sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It marks an Irish family history unmistakably and without apology.
- It has a serious and well-documented namesake.
- The name behind it is one of the most established in Europe.
- English speakers will get both the syllable count and the vowel wrong.
- The accent that fixes the pronunciation cannot survive most American forms.
- Padraig with a g is commoner and will be substituted.
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Padraic
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Padraics are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Padraic are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Padraic in 2025?
- Padraic is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Padraic with classmates?
- Padraic will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Paul#262 · Patrick#235 · Peter#187 · Philip#527 · Phillip#651 · Parker#102 · Preston#299 · Pedro#455
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Padraic? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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