Patrick
Masculine · “nobleman”
Patrick is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 686,590 boys against 2,834 girls since 1880. See Patrick as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Patrick alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 558,000 people named Patrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Patrick most popular?
Patrick peaked in 1964, reaching #30 nationally. Today it ranks #235, 205 places below that high. See the whole 1964 chart.
Patrick appears on these lists:
- Midcentury modern: tomorrow's comeback bets
- Baby Boomer names (born 1946–1964)
- Generation X names (born 1965–1980)
- Millennial names (born 1981–1996)
- Seven-letter names, ranked by real use
- The most common names in America today
- all guides
Works in Irish families too:
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.
Cultural footprint
Patrick Mahomes (b. 1995) — Three-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback
Patrick Stewart (b. 1940) — Captain Picard and Professor X
Patrick Swayze (b. 1952) — Dirty Dancing and Ghost star
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 196912,675 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #30reached in 1964
- Change vs 2022
- −12.9%1,495 in 2025, from 1,717
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Patricks among us
people named Patrick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,143 born in 2025 was named Patrick
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lawrence test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Patrick's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lawrence climbed just as high around 1942, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lawrence's path sketches the road Patrick is walking now.
Patrick has held the top-100 across 9 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Patrick is headed
Patrick should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Patrick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Patrick in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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
Masculine · #235 in the U.S.
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 558,000 people named Patrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Patrick in 2025?
- Patrick ranks #235 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,495 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Patrick?
- About 1 in every 1,143 US boys born in 2025 was named Patrick — 1,495 in all.
- Will my child share the name Patrick with classmates?
- Patrick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Patrick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Richard#234 · Brody#236 · Kaiden#237 · Justin#233 · Alex#232 · Dallas#238 · Abel#231 · Muhammad#239
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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