Patty
Feminine · “noble”
Patty is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 62,452 girls against 247 boys since 1880.
Patty has served two completely different names in its life. Before the twentieth century it was a pet form of Martha; after Patricia arrived, it became a pet form of that instead, and the older use was quietly forgotten.
How old is the name Patty?
Patty was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Patty alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 43,500 people named Patty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Patty most popular?
Patty peaked in 1959, reaching #140 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 14,802 places below that high. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From patricius to Patty
The story of Patty
English formed Patty from Martha by a consonant substitution of the same kind that made Peg from Meg and Molly from Mary — an eighteenth-century habit that is now barely legible. When Patricia rose sharply in the twentieth century, it captured the sound, and Patty transferred parents without anyone deciding to. American families registered it as a legal name from the 1930s, and it peaked at the end of the 1940s.
Meaningscholars disagree
noble, patrician
Through Patricia, from the Latin patricius, 'nobleman' — the hereditary order of Rome. Through the older parent Martha, the meaning is entirely different: the Aramaic marta, 'lady' or 'mistress of the house'. Which applies depends on when and where the name was given.
How the name formed
- patricius
- Patricia
- Patty
Related forms: Patricia · Patrizia · Patti · Pattie
Pronouncing Patty
PAT-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Patty, Patti and Pattie are said identically.
Nicknames for Patty
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19593,113 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #140reached in 1959
- Change vs 2017
- −28.6%5 in 2025, from 7
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.
Patty in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Patricia in Spanish — related form
- Patrizia in Italian — related form
- Patti in English — spelling variant
- Pattie in English — spelling variant
Pattys among us
people named Patty are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Patty
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Patty
- #14942
- Patty on the 2025 chart
- #949
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Patty went to 5 girls in 2025, but Patti is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 11, which makes it the 949th most-given girls’ name of the year — 13,993 places above the chart.
- Patti6
- Patty5
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Patty itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Winifred test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Patty's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Winifred climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Winifred's path sketches the road Patty is walking now.
Patty sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Patty beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Patty in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two well-documented parent names stand behind it, from unrelated languages.
- Warm, bright and impossible to mispronounce.
- The forgotten Martha connection is a genuinely interesting piece of English.
- It shares its sound with an ordinary English noun for a flat cake of food.
- Three spellings are in use, so the written form has to be given.
- It is period-coded to the middle of the twentieth century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Patty
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Pattys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 43,500 people named Patty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Patty?
- Patty is one of 2 recorded spellings. Patti is the more common one — 6 births in 2025 against 5 for Patty.
- How popular is the name Patty in 2025?
- Patty ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Patty?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Patty — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Patty with classmates?
- Patty will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Patty
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Patty? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Patty and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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