# Patience (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/patience/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpeɪʃəns/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 12,469 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 44 / 12,425 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 369, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

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

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 315 | 839 |
| 2012 | 316 | 845 |
| 2013 | 291 | 887 |
| 2014 | 273 | 978 |
| 2015 | 246 | 1,070 |
| 2016 | 206 | 1,206 |
| 2017 | 181 | 1,302 |
| 2018 | 213 | 1,147 |
| 2019 | 236 | 1,071 |
| 2020 | 229 | 1,080 |
| 2021 | 231 | 1,084 |
| 2022 | 203 | 1,189 |
| 2023 | 198 | 1,207 |
| 2024 | 174 | 1,324 |
| 2025 | 172 | 1,297 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 6 | 12,187 |
| 2010 | 6 | 11,815 |
| 2014 | 5 | 13,525 |
| 2018 | 8 | 9,443 |
| 2021 | 6 | 11,783 |
| 2022 | 7 | 10,583 |
| 2023 | 6 | 11,895 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 19 | 1,545 |
| 2012 | 17 | 1,720 |
| 2013 | 17 | 1,707 |
| 2014 | 14 | 1,966 |
| 2015 | 15 | 1,865 |
| 2016 | 10 | 2,547 |
| 2017 | 9 | 2,706 |
| 2018 | 8 | 2,901 |
| 2019 | 7 | 3,151 |
| 2020 | 7 | 3,117 |
| 2021 | 3 | 5,581 |
| 2022 | 6 | 3,533 |
| 2023 | 4 | 4,709 |
| 2024 | 5 | 4,192 |
| 2025 | 6 | 3,705 |

## People named Patience

- Patience Dabany, Gabonese musician
- Patience Jonathan, former First Lady of Nigeria and permanent secretary in Bayelsa
- Patience Cleveland, American actress (1931-2004)
- Patience Wright, American sculptor of wax figures (1725–1786)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.