Pat

Short form of Patrick, derived from the Latin patricius for nobleman, and later Patricia. American parents began registering it as an independent given name on birth certificates in the late nineteenth century, treating the nickname as the complete assignment.

The name reads as someone who answers the phone by stating their own last name. It functioned as an ambidextrous standard throughout the mid-twentieth century, leaning sixty percent female without ever fully abandoning the other side of the ledger. The average living bearer is seventy-four years old. It suggests an aluminum storm door and a thermos of black coffee that stays hot until three in the afternoon.