Patrick

Patrick comes from the Latin Patricius, meaning a patrician, a member of Rome’s noble class. It is the name of the fifth-century missionary who became Ireland’s patron saint. The Irish form, Pádraig, replaced a much older borrowing of the same Latin name, Cothraige.

Patrick left two Latin writings of his own. In his Confessio he tells how pirates took him from Britain to Ireland at sixteen, and how he worked as a herder for six years before escaping. He later returned as a bishop. Other well-known bearers include Patrick Pearse, a leader of the 1916 Rising, and the poet Patrick Kavanagh.

Patrick was number 2 in 1964, and 2,281 boys were given the name the following year, its highest count. It has stayed in the top 30 every year since. In 2025 it was number 25 in the CSO’s table. It has never been as high in Northern Ireland, where its best rank was 18th, in 2003.