Paddy as a nn for Patrick?

[CleverOl10]

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?

I live in cheshire and know somebody called paddy so yes

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.

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 .

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

Can't see why not.

Also, Patrick is an excellent name. Good work.

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.

Love it

Great name!

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.

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

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...

I really like the shortened version of Patsy.

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'.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Patrick is lovely in its un-nicknamed state.

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

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

I think Patsy for a boy would constitute intolerable cruelty!

i had two friends called patrick at school, one was paddy and one was tricky.
this was in liverpool in the '80s

Where I'm from 'Paddy' is definitely the main, most-used, nickname for Patrick.

I really don't think the suggestion you were given of 'Patsy' is a good idea at all.

All the little Patricks I know are called Patrick.

Well, one is called Paddy, but his parents called him Paddy from birth as that's what they wanted.

I agree it's nicest left alone as Patrick, and that it is a nice, solid name.

(Squoosh, I hope Ireland eventually reclaims old man/old woman names, but of the Gobnait/Cornelius kind, rather than Wilfred or Florence - I would be most tickled. Though 'Florence', pronounced 'Flurrence' and shortened to 'Flor', is traditionally an old man name in my neck of the woods, which might take a lot of reclaiming...)

I don't agree about anti-Irish prejudice having died out in the UK - at least my own experience doesn't tally with that - but am pleased that someone else's experience is of none. Our experience probably did influence our decision not to give our son an Irish first name, though.