Patrick

The name derives from the Latin Patricius. It moved through Western Europe across the Middle Ages before regular appearance in seventeenth-century town rosters. By the time national record keeping began in 1880, it was already firmly settled across American registries.

The name reads as a man standing near the open tailgate of a station wagon, waiting patiently for someone else to find their keys. A Patrick tends to be pictured wearing canvas trousers and carrying an unlabeled travel mug. With an estimated average age of forty-seven, the name occupies a broad demographic stretch that has retired its intramural softball cleats but has not yet taken up birdwatching. It reached its highest annual count in 1964 and has spent subsequent decades maintaining a quiet refusal to cause a scene.