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Baby names

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Original poster

Paddy as a nn for Patrick?

45 replies

CleverOl10 · 04/03/2014 00:05

What do people think? I don't really like Pat as a nn but realise Patrick is bound to be shortened. It's still on the maybe list but does Paddy work outside of Ireland?

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SanityClause · 04/03/2014 11:08

I know a 10yo Patrick who is known as Paddy, in SE England.

Martorana · 04/03/2014 11:08

Mine is home sick at the moment. I have just asked him about "Patsy". his answer was not suitable for a family audience.Grin

squoosh · 04/03/2014 11:07

Patrick is lovely in its un-nicknamed state.

Martorana · 04/03/2014 11:06

The reason he is never Paddy is that his granddad-also a Patrick- hated that it was a generic name for an Irish man- and had had lots of anti-Paddy prejudice in his life.

squoosh · 04/03/2014 11:05

But you're right about old man's names not being in vogue in Ireland. I'm struggling to imagine any of my friends naming their sons Wilf or Stanley. That would cause jaws to drop!

Martorana · 04/03/2014 11:04

My Patrick is never Paddy. He is Pat on the football pitch and sometimes to his friends and he has a family nickname which I won't embarrass him by revealing. He is also sometimes PJ.He was Patch until he was old enough (very young indeed) to refuse to answer to, and my attempts to call him Trick are met with the Death Look.

But he is usually just Patrick, which he prefers. You can't second guess nicknames!

squoosh · 04/03/2014 11:03

I think 'Paddy' does probably still exist as a slur, although I've never been on the receiving end of it myself. I think anti-Irish sentiment has all but died out in the UK so I wouldn't be worried that a child called Paddy would be the object of ridicule.

I just think it's a good, solid, no nonsense name and it reminds me of some lovely relatives.

Burren · 04/03/2014 10:57

Now Patsy I genuinely cannot think of on anyone under the age of seventy, however hard I tell myself 'It's reclaimed!' (Though have also come across it fairly frequently as a shortening for Patricia, though again in women in late middle-age onward.)

The other nickname you get for Patrick in my neck of the woods is plain 'Pa', with a long 'a', so sort of 'Paaa'.

SilverViking · 04/03/2014 10:49

I really like the shortened version of Patsy.

Burren · 04/03/2014 10:47

Oh, good, if that's generally true. It seemed the case for a while that, while the UK was happily re-embracing 'old man' names for babies, Ireland wasn't.

Leaving the old man element aside, do you not think the 'national stereotype' connotation remains, though? Although that would work differently, I suppose, depending on whether the OP was Irish, or lived in or out of Ireland...

squoosh · 04/03/2014 10:44

I disagree. I know a couple of baby Irish Paddys, it's become fresh again.

Burren · 04/03/2014 10:36

Patrick (and its various Irish versions) is a lovely name.

'Paddy', though, (to me) is a bit of an old man nickname, as well as having the - unfortunately still-inevitable - national stereotype/Paddy Irishman/ Plastic Paddy etc connotations, which is a shame.

And honestly, I probably would choose another name if I really loathed one of the obvious shortenings to the point where it was going to make me wince every time I heard it.

squoosh · 04/03/2014 10:27

Great name!

Only1scoop · 04/03/2014 08:46

Love it

treaclesoda · 04/03/2014 08:45

I love the name Patrick but I think the only way to sidestep the use of the nickname you don't like is to use the other nn yourself, from the very start, otherwise it's whaf his friends will call him. They're unlikely to shorten Paddy to Pat, but very likely to shorten Patrick to Pat.

I wish we'd done this with DD, her name can be shortened to a name that I loathe, but around the house we often call her by a different nn which we live. Wish we had just used our choice of nn from the very start, so everyone knows her as it instead of her full name.

RalphRecklessCardew · 04/03/2014 08:35

Can't see why not.

Also, Patrick is an excellent name. Good work.

tammytoby · 04/03/2014 06:57

Nicknames can't always be planned. If you're called Patrick then friends will probably call you Patrick or Pat, especially once at school.

onedev · 04/03/2014 00:21

I love the name Paddy although I have a very good friend called Patrick & he's never had his name shortened & is most definitely Patrick & not Paddy, so it may not necessarily be shortened. Love both names Grin.

MuttonCadet · 04/03/2014 00:08

It did in South Yorkshire 30 years ago, so I imagine it's fine.

The problem is that you can't dictate a nickname, it'll be what his friends call him.

Sars123 · 04/03/2014 00:08

I live in cheshire and know somebody called paddy so yes

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