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Pate vs Patty

American parents have registered 62,699 Pattys since 1880, against 282 Pates. But in 2025 it was Pate that was commoner, 10 babies to 5.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Pate against Patty, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pate Patty

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 133 years in which either name was published, Patty for 124 years and Pate for 9 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Pate Patty
Total US births 28262,699
Most in one year 133,123
Babies in 2025 105
Estimated living today 20042,000
Median age today 1566
Peak year 20031959
Best rank 5,558th boys140th girls
Rank in 2025 7,679th14,942nd
First recorded 19011880
Girls / boys 0 / 28262,452 / 247

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Pattys alive today are over 66; half the Pates are over 15. That is 51 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pate and Patty.