Patsey
Feminine · Aramaic roots · “noble (as Patricia)”
Patsey is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 507 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Patsey is the spelling Solomon Northup used in Twelve Years a Slave for the young woman whose endurance stands at the center of his account of bondage in Louisiana. In Steve McQueen's film of the book, Lupita Nyong'o won the Academy Award for playing her.
How old is the name Patsey?
Patsey first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Patsey alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 300 people named Patsey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Patsey most popular?
Patsey peaked in 1942, reaching #1630 nationally. See the whole 1942 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Martha (Aramaic) or Patricia (Latin) to Patsey
The story of Patsey
In eighteenth-century Virginia, Patsy was a pet form of Martha: Thomas Jefferson's daughter Martha was Patsy to her family, as was Martha Washington's daughter Martha Parke Custis. Later the name attached to Patricia, and in Ireland to Patrick, which is why the record shows this spelling on a few boys. Patsey, with its extra e, is the form Solomon Northup used for the enslaved woman whose story sits at the heart of Twelve Years a Slave, and it is through that book and its film that most readers now meet it.
Meaningscholars disagree
noble (as Patricia)
Patsy has served more than one name. In eighteenth-century America it was a pet form of Martha; later it became the usual short form of Patricia, Latin for 'noble'; and in Ireland it has long been a men's short form of Patrick. Patsey is a spelling of Patsy, and the record does not say which root a given Patsey carried.
How the name formed
- Martha or PatriciaAramaic
- Patsy
- Patsey
Pronouncing Patsey
PAT-see
Two syllables, stress on the first; the extra e is silent.
Nicknames for Patsey
Limited
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
- 1911
- Most girls named
- 194226 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1630reached in 1942
- Change vs 1964
- +20.0%6 in 1965, 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.
Patseys among us
people named Patsey 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
Patsey 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
- A documented literary and historical bearer of this exact spelling.
- Said exactly like Patsy, which everyone knows.
- Pat is a ready short form.
- The spelling is now closely tied to Northup's Patsey and her suffering in slavery; many readers will make that link first, and it is a serious one to carry.
- The English word patsy means someone set up to take the blame, and the joke will surface now and then.
- Nearly every Patsey is a girl; a boy with this spelling would share it almost entirely with girls, though Patsy for Patrick has a long Irish history.
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Patsey
Feminine · Aramaic roots
Frequently asked
- How many Patseys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Patsey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Patsey in 2025?
- Patsey is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Patsey with classmates?
- Patsey 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 Patsey? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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