Patterson
A masculine given name derived from Patrick, meaning "noble" or "patrician".
Name Census estimates that about 398 living Americans carry the first name Patterson. It is a predominantly male name (96.4% of registrations). The average person named Patterson today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Patterson births was 2010 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Patterson. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
398
~ 1 in 861,192 Americans
Peak year
2010
19 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,513
Tracked since 1912
Gender
Gender distribution for Patterson
Patterson leans heavily male at 96.4% of total registrations, but 20 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Patterson as a male name
- Ranked #10,513 in 2023
- 7 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2013 (16 births)
Patterson as a female name
- Ranked #18,556 in 2014
- 5 female births in 2014
- Peak: 1993 (5 births)
Popularity
Patterson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Patterson from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 121 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Patterson by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Patterson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Patterson
The name Patterson is a patronymic surname originating from the personal name Pàtraic, an Irish name derived from the Latin name Patricius meaning "of the patrician class" or "noble". It first appeared as a surname in England and Scotland in the 12th century.
Patronymic surnames were common in medieval times, indicating a person was the son of someone with a given name. In this case, Patterson means "son of Patrick". The name is believed to have originated in Northumberland, England and later spread to Scotland and Ireland.
The earliest recorded use of the name Patterson dates back to 1189 in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire, England, where it appears as "Patericsoune". In Scotland, the name is first recorded in 1296 in the Ragman Rolls, a record of Scottish nobles and landowners who swore allegiance to King Edward I of England.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Patterson was William Patterson, a Scottish merchant and banker born in 1658. He was one of the founders of the Bank of England and played a crucial role in the establishment of the Darien Scheme, an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Scottish colony in Panama.
Another famous Patterson was Andrew Patterson, an American military officer born in 1776. He served in the War of 1812 and later became a Major General in the United States Army. He is remembered for his role in the Battle of New Orleans and the defense of New Orleans during the War of 1812.
In the field of literature, John Patterson, a Scottish-born Canadian author born in 1867, is notable for his works exploring the lives of early settlers in Canada. His novel "The Man from Glengarry" is considered a classic of Canadian literature.
Robert Wilson Patterson, born in 1857, was a prominent American educator and academic administrator. He served as the president of the State College of Kentucky (now the University of Kentucky) from 1890 to 1910 and played a significant role in the development of higher education in the state.
Lastly, Robert P. Patterson, born in 1892, was an American lawyer and government official who served as the United States Secretary of War from 1945 to 1947, overseeing the final stages of World War II and the transition to peacetime operations.
People
Patterson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Patterson as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Patterson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Patterson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 398 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Patterson going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 861,192 US residents.
Is Patterson a common name?
We classify Patterson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 554 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Patterson most popular?
The single biggest year for Patterson was 2010, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Patterson is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Patterson a male name?
Yes, 96.4% of people registered as Patterson in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.