Patrick
Feminine · “nobleman”
Patrick is given to boys far more often — 686,590 boys against 2,834 girls since 1880. See Patrick as a boy name
For most of a thousand years, Irish families would not give this name to a child. It was thought too sacred to use directly, so they gave a compound instead — a name meaning servant of Patrick — and the plain form only came into general Irish use in the seventeenth century.
How old is the name Patrick?
Patrick first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Patrick alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 2,400 people named Patrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Patrick most popular?
Patrick peaked in 1968, reaching #1223 nationally. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From patricius to Patrick
The story of Patrick
Gilla Patraic and Maol Patraic — servant and devotee of Patrick — are all over the medieval Irish records, and the surnames Kilpatrick and Mulpatrick come from them. The plain name is almost absent. That reticence broke down in the early modern period, and by the eighteenth century Patrick was so thoroughly Irish that the English used it as a generic word for an Irishman, which is where Paddy as an insult comes from. Almost everything else attached to the day is later still: the shamrock first appears in the story in the seventeenth century, the snakes in the twelfth, and neither is in anything Patrick wrote.
Meaning
nobleman
The Latin patricius named a member of the senatorial class, and the man who carried it into Ireland used it of himself as a claim about his family in Roman Britain.
How the name formed
- patricius
- Patrick
Related forms: Padraig · Patrice · Patricio · Patrizio · Patryk
Pronouncing Patrick
PAT-rik
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Irish says PAW-drig for the Gaelic form, which is a different set of sounds entirely.
Nicknames for Patrick
High
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 198493 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1223reached in 1968
- Change vs 2009
- 0.0%5 in 2017, 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.
Patrick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Padraig in Irish — same name
- Patrice in French — same name
- Patricio in Spanish — same name
- Patrizio in Italian — same name
- Patryk in Polish — same name
Patricks among us
people named Patrick 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
Patrick 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
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing, anywhere English is spoken.
- It has a form in Irish, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish.
- The historical figure behind it left first-hand writing, which almost no early saint did.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- It is strongly and unavoidably read as Irish, which is either the point or the problem.
- The short form Paddy carries a history of insult in Britain.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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What they receive
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Patrick
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Patricks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Patrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Patrick in 2025?
- Patrick is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Patrick with classmates?
- Patrick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Patricia#1334 · Pamela#2239 · Phyllis#11932 · Peggy#8362 · Paula#853 · Pauline#2957 · Pearl#776 · Paige#346
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Patrick? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Patrick and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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