Humanverse

Patricia vs Patrick

American parents have registered 1,578,584 Patricias since 1880, against 689,424 Patricks. But in 2025 it was Patrick that was commoner, 1,495 babies to 167.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Patricia against Patrick, 1880 to 2025 0 15k 30k 45k 60k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Patricia Patrick

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 146 years in which either name was published, Patrick for 81 years and Patricia for 65 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Patricia Patrick
Total US births 1,578,584689,424
Most in one year 56,57414,750
Babies in 2025 1671,495
Estimated living today 1 million551,000
Median age today 7046
Peak year 19511964
Best rank 3rd girls30th boys
Rank in 2025 1,334th235th
First recorded 18841880
Girls / boys 1,573,623 / 4,9612,834 / 686,590

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 Patricias alive today are over 70; half the Patricks are over 46. That is 24 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Patricia Patrick
France 207,515395,215
Ireland 9,98150,100
Austria 2,22223,068
England and Wales 1,33317,934
New Zealand 5,0076,320
Scotland 1,2263,631
Norway 5593,250
Northern Ireland 632,697
Switzerland 4921,804
Poland 3311,421
Belgium 226527

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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