Humanverse

Patsy vs Patt

American parents have registered 127,161 Patsys since 1880, against 410 Patts. Patsy is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Patsy against Patt, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Patsy Patt

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

Patsy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1957, when Patsy had 1,646 and Patt had 14.

Side by side

  Patsy Patt
Total US births 127,161410
Most in one year 4,86824
Babies in 2025 20under 5
Estimated living today 61,000190
Median age today 7779
Peak year 19411946
Best rank 52nd girls1,860th girls
Rank in 2025 5,917thunranked
First recorded 18801927
Girls / boys 119,448 / 7,713400 / 10

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 Patts alive today are over 79; half the Patsys are over 77. That is 2 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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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