Name Awesome

Patience

#1,297 in 2025Girls' name

English word name: patience

Patience has been given to 12,469 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #1,297 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2006, with 508 recorded.

Babies named Patience, 2025

1 in 19,300

Patience over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Patience: meaning, origin, and history

English word name: patience

English

What Patience means

Patience takes the English word patience into personal-name use.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From patience, a virtue name first used by Puritans in the sixteenth century.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Patience (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Patience is used in English. Its origins include English.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Patience is pronounced /ˈpeɪʃəns/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,425 girls were recorded with the name Patience between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 508 in 2006; its best national rank was #578 in 2006.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,080 in 2020 to #1,297 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,070 in 2015 to #1,297 in 2025.

In the United States, 44 boys were recorded with the name Patience between 2008 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 8 in 2018; its best national rank was #9,437 in 2018.

How common is Patience?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 19,300
172 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 9,340
0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,297
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
13,361 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Patience sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 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 5003%

Put another way: gather 13,361 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Patience. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Patiences were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Patience was born before 2004 — so the typical Patience is around 21 today.

Median birth year
2004
About 21 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
28.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
57.2%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
11,515
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 28.4% of all recorded uses (3,523).

Is Patience 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
+27
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−217
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−227
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.70×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
33.9%
Peak was 2006 (508)
Years since peak
19
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
8.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#578
2006

Where Patience is used

Across 2016–2025, Patience was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 2,857 girls, against 1 in 7,773 across all states with data. It was least common in Minnesota (1 in 50,000).

235 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 2,857
  2. 2South Carolina1 in 2,857
  3. 3Georgia1 in 3,333
  4. 4Alabama1 in 4,000
  5. 5Missouri1 in 4,000
  6. 6Louisiana1 in 4,348
  7. 7Ohio1 in 4,348
  8. 8Hawaii1 in 5,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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.

Patience around the world

Where Patience ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,705
    in 2025
  • France
    1984–2021
    #5,438
    in 2021
  • Canada
    1992–2023
    #2,973
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1946–2012
    #563
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Patience

People whose public names include Patience, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Patience by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,297
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 217
Best rank ever
#578
2006
Peak year
2006
508 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
12,425
Count in 2025
172

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#9,437
2018
Peak year
2018
8 that year
First recorded
2008
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
44
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Patience

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

KaydencePatricePrudenceKadenceEssencePatricaCaydenceKaidenceCadenceLawrencePattieFloranceKaydancePatiancePatrickPattiCaidencePatrishaPatrinaPattyTemperanceCandancePatreciaKaedence

Names with a curve like Patience

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Patience, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AyanaGiovannaIlianaJoslynShylaCarleeKaylynnDaniaMelinaJanessaAnikaKeila

Sibling names for Patience

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

Explore around Patience

Top names of 2006, Patience's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2006Girls' names starting with PVirtue Names