Patricia
Meaning
noble
Goes by Pat, Patsy, Patty, Tricia, and 1 more
Famously borne by Patricia Bath, ophthalmologist who invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract surgery.
The story
Patricia is the feminine form of the Latin Patricius, a name that marked Rome's patrician class. The spelling turns up in medieval Latin documents, but as a name people actually answered to it seems to begin in eighteenth-century Scotland. Its modern fame owes something to Princess Patricia of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria so admired in Canada that a regiment raised in 1914, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, still carries her name. In America the name climbed steadily to third place, where it sat from 1937 to 1943, and stayed near the top for four decades, splitting into Pat, Patsy, Patti, Tricia, and Trish along the way. A name that began as a badge of aristocracy became one of the most democratic names in the country.
Patricia around the world
One shared root links 6 names across 4 languages.
Shared root: from Latin patricius "nobleman, patrician"
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Patricia peaked in the 1940s.
Popularity in Brazil
500,893 people · the #39 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 406 · median age 38
Among people named Patricia living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 1,101 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Patricia
Most people given the name Patricia in the United States were born between 1940 and 1969. The Patricia you meet today is most often in her 60s or 70s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Patricia deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Patricia truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Patricia fits with your family’s names and surname.
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