US baby names · Girls · 1880–2025
Patricia: name popularity by year
How often US parents chose Patricia for a baby girl, year by year, from Social Security Administration records. When it peaked, how long it stayed in the top 10, and which generation it belongs to.
Patricia was one of the 10 most common girls' names in the US in 38 years, between 1929 and 1966, reaching #3. Births peaked in 1951, when 56,446 baby girls were named Patricia, so by peak year it is a Baby Boomers name.
Patricia in the US top 10, by year
Rank among girls' names, #1 at the top. Blank years: outside the top 10. Dashed line: the year with the most babies named Patricia (1951).
Top-10 years by generation
| Generation | Years in top 10 | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 17 (1929–1945) | #3 |
| Baby Boomers | 19 (1946–1964) | #3 |
| Generation X | 2 (1965–1966) | #6 |
Every top-10 year
Questions people ask
When was the name Patricia most popular?
By number of babies, in 1951, when 56,446 girls were given the name. By rank, it reached #3 and spent 38 years in the top 10.
What generation is the name Patricia?
Its peak year, 1951, falls in Baby Boomers (1946–1964). Its 38 top-10 years fall in: Silent Generation (17), Baby Boomers (19), Generation X (2).
How many people have been named Patricia?
SSA counted 1,573,623 girls named Patricia born from 1880 to 2025. That is births, not people alive today, and it misses many people born before 1937 who never applied for a Social Security card.
In the top 10 at the same time
Source: US Social Security Administration baby-name data, from Social Security card applications for births in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 1880–2025. Many people born before 1937 never applied for a card, so early years undercount. Spellings are counted separately. We hold each year's top 10 in rank order and each name's peak-year and all-time counts, so the chart shows rank rather than births per year. This page gives no meaning or origin for the name and no estimate of how many people named Patricia are alive today.