Pater

Boys' name

Clipping of Paterno

Pater has been given to 17 babies in the U.S. since 1987. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1987, with 6 recorded.

Babies named Pater, 2010

1 in 616,000

Pater over time, 1880–2025

Boys

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Pater: meaning, origin, and history

Clipping of Paterno

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Pater means

Pater is a clipping of Paterno.

Origin, language, and formation

Pater is used in Cebuano.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Paterno.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 17 boys were recorded with the name Pater between 1987 and 2010. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1987; its best national rank was #6,726 in 1987.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Pater?

Pater had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2010, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2010: 1 in 616,000; 6 of 3,695,928 births
Among boys only: 1 in 320,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2010: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 426,971 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Pater sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2010 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 426,971 children born in 2010 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Pater. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Paters were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Pater was born before 1989 — so the typical Pater is around 36 today.

Median birth year: 1989; About 36 years old
Biggest decade: 1980s; 64.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 17; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1980s — 64.7% of all recorded uses (11).

Is Pater rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1987 (6)
Years since peak: 38; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Not enough data; Too few years
Best rank ever: #6,726; 1987

Spellings of Pater

Pater is not the most common spelling — Walter is, with 33.3% against Pater's <0.01%.

Walter33.3%631,172
Peter31.1%589,588
Carter10.9%206,833
Parker6.9%130,941
Mateo6.7%126,693
Pete2.3%43,530
Karter1.6%29,465
Tate1.4%27,400

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Pater is used

Across 1910–2025, Pater was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,834,433 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Pennsylvania1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Pater has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Pater by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #6,726; 1987
Peak year: 1987; 6 that year
First recorded: 1987
Last recorded: 2010
All-time count: 17
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Pater

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Patch Paten Patten Patti Patron Patt Koulter Patrell Paton Holter Patick Patsey Pattie Salter Patrica Potter Trotter Rooster Patricik Patriot Guster Pate Dester Reiter

Sibling names for Pater

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Shantell Janay Ashely Kassie Anthony Kyle Cody Domonique

For a brother

Derik Derrell Darell Whitney Shea Elizabeth Kelsey Garrick

Explore around Pater

Top names of 1987, Pater's peak year The 1980s in full Other names that peaked in 1987 Boys' names starting with P