Holiday Calendar

National Patricia Day

Next celebratedTuesday, April 27, 2027

In 1914 Princess Patricia hand-sewed a crimson colour for the Canadian regiment named after her, and it went into every battle the Patricias fought. April 27 keeps the day for the name behind it.

Countdown to the day
--DAYS
--HRS
--MIN
--SEC
Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEApril 27
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A date with no calendar behind it.

No documented founder, establishment record, or organizing body has been identified for National Patricia Day. The date circulates on holiday-listing sites and in social posts, and no source explains why April 27 was chosen.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

Runner-up for an entire American century

National Patricia Day honors a name that spent the American century close to the top and never quite at it. The Social Security Administration counts 1,531,355 girls named Patricia in its hundred-year list of births, second only to Mary. Patricia never finished a single year higher than third.

Thirteen of its years landed at third place, and it never once got past that. Twenty-two years in the annual top five produced no first-place finish and no second-place finish either. The name won the century by lasting rather than by peaking.

That is an unusual amount of documentation for a name. The day attached to it has none.

Advertisement
ORIGINS

Patricia Day history

INTRODUCTION

Patricia is an old word and a young name. The spelling shows up in medieval English documents written in Latin, but it sat there as a term rather than as anybody's name.

It was probably not used as an actual given name until the 18th century, beginning in Scotland. For most of its existence, Patricia was a rank in search of a person.

CHAPTER 01

A princess born on St. Patrick's Day

In March 1886, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria was born at Buckingham Palace. Her parents named her Victoria for the queen and Patricia for the date, which was St. Patrick's Day.

She arrived in Canada in 1911, where her father served as governor general, and stayed five years. Her name began landing on the map. A single visit to the city of Victoria was enough to turn Union Bay into Patricia Bay, and Ontario handed her name to an entire new northern district.

CHAPTER 02

The regiment she sewed a flag for

In August 1914 a Montreal businessman, Hamilton Gault, paid out of his own pocket to raise an infantry regiment for the war. Its commander asked the Duke of Connaught for permission to use his daughter's name. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was the last privately raised regiment in Canada.

Patricia did more than lend the name. She designed and hand-sewed the regiment's first colour, a crimson flag with a royal blue centre and gold initials for Victoria Patricia. It was carried into every First World War battle the Patricias fought.

CHAPTER 03

The boom, and the long slide

In the United States the name arrived late and then would not leave. Patricia reached the annual top five in 1935 and stayed inside it, on and off, for thirty years.

Then it fell about as fast as it had climbed. Patricia ranked thirtieth among girls' names for the 1970s. By the 1990s it had slid to one hundred thirty-third.

National Patricia Day sits at the end of that record with nothing behind it. No founder, no organizing body and no stated reason for April 27 turned up in proclamation records, trademark filings or archives. What exists is a date that circulates on holiday listings and in social posts.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Patricia Day

GENERATION

Two decades hold more than half of every American Patricia.

Social Security counted 459,681 Patricias born in the 1950s alone. Add the 1940s and those two decades hold more than half of every Patricia in the agency's hundred-year count.

LANGUAGE

The name is a social rank from ancient Rome

Patricia is the feminine of the Latin Patricius, from patricius, the word for the founding families of Rome. A name meaning noble ended up as one of the most ordinary names in the country.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Born on St. Patrick's Day

A granddaughter of Queen Victoria was born at Buckingham Palace and named Patricia for the date.

A bay and a district

Union Bay was renamed Patricia Bay, and Ontario named its new northern region the District of Patricia.

A regiment takes the name

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was founded on August 10 and first paraded at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa that same month.

Patricia enters the American top five

The name reached fifth place among US girls' names for the first time.

The last third-place finish

Patricia ranked third among American girls' names for the thirteenth and final time.

Out of the top five

The name appeared in the annual top five for the last time, in fifth place.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Patricia Day

Patricia was printed on Canadian money

Her portrait appeared on the Canadian $1 bill in 1917. The note stayed in circulation until 1923.

The strongest hurricane on record carried the name

Hurricane Patricia peaked at 185 knots in October 2015. The National Hurricane Center rates it the strongest on record in either the eastern North Pacific or the North Atlantic.

A Patricia holds a landmark medical patent

Dr. Patricia Bath received U.S. Patent No. 4,744,360 in 1988 for a laser cataract device. She was the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent.

The name has dropped off the American list

Patricia last appeared in the US top 1,000 in 2019, at number 939. It has not ranked since.

The name's oldest date belongs to a Naples saint

Saint Patricia of Constantinople died at Naples on August 25, 685. Spain still keeps the name day on that date.

Believe me, I am indeed honoured that my name should be borne by such troops as Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry have shown themselves to be.
Lady Patricia RamsayPrincess Patricia of Connaught, colonel-in-chief of the regiment, 1964

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Patricia Day

ASK

Ask an older Patricia how she got the name

The name's American peak is decades behind it, which means most Patricias were named when it was still an ordinary choice. Ask how hers was picked, and write the answer down.

READ

Read the record of the regiment that carries it

One Canadian infantry regiment has carried the name since the First World War. Start with the Canadian Army's own page on it rather than a secondhand summary.

WRITE

Write to a Patricia you have lost touch with

A name day is a reason that does not need a birthday. Pick one Patricia and send her something longer than a text message.

COLLECT

Collect the Patricias in your own family tree

Names repeat down a family in patterns that are easy to miss. Write down every Patricia you can find and note the decade each one was born.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Patricia Day?

1 / 8

Where does the name Patricia come from?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no proclamation, statute or registry entry behind it, so it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

14sources
9primary records
11independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Top Names Over the Last 100 Years
The 100 most common American given names for births from 1926 to 2025, with counts.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Top 5 Names in Each of the Last 100 Years
The five most popular American names for every single birth year since 1926.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Popular Names for Births in 1940-1949
Rankings and birth counts for the most common American names of the 1940s.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Popular Names for Births in 1950-1959
Rankings and birth counts for the most common American names of the 1950s.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Popular Names for Births in 1970-1979
Rankings and birth counts for the most common American names of the 1970s.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2026
Popular Names for Births in 1990-1999
Rankings and birth counts for the most common American names of the 1990s.
View source
Government of Canada, Canadian Army2022-03-28
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI)
The army's own account of the regiment's 1914 founding and its hand-sewn colour.
View source
NOAA National Hurricane Center2016-02-04
Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Patricia (EP202015)
The official post-storm analysis of Patricia's record 185-knot peak in October 2015.
View source
National Inventors Hall of Fame2022
Patricia Bath
Profile of the ophthalmologist behind the 1988 Laserphaco patent, inducted in 2022.
View source
Additional coverage
The Canadian Encyclopedia2018-04-30
Princess Patricia of Connaught
Biography covering her St. Patrick's Day birth, her Canadian years and her 1964 statement.
View source
Behind the Name
Patricia
Etymology of the name and the national name-day dates that carry it.
View source
Behind the Name2026
Patricia: popularity in the United States
Year-by-year American rankings for the name, ending at number 939 in 2019.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Patricia
Traces the name to Latin patricius, the word for Rome's noble founding families.
View source
Santo del Giorno
Santa Patrizia di Costantinopoli
Record of the seventh-century saint, her death at Naples and her August 25 feast.
View source
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Related holidays

TUE
30
Mar 2026
National Victoria Day
Names

National Victoria Day

The name's biggest year in America was 1993, long after Queen Victoria died. March 30 belongs to that strikingly modern crowd rather than to the monarch, who was christened Alexandrina Victoria anyway.

46Read
THU
25
Feb 2026
National Kathy Day
Names

National Kathy Day

Kathy went to 34,766 US girls in the 1940s and 22,706 in the 1970s, then vanished: no decade since has put it among the country's 200 most popular girls' names. February 25 is its day.

137Read
WED
14
Oct 2026
National Katie Day
Names

National Katie Day

In 2004 Katie was the ninth most popular baby girls' name in England and Wales and 102nd in the United States: the same five letters, 93 places apart. October 14 belongs to all of them.

46Read
FOR MARKETERS & CREATORS

Turn every day into a moment your audience actually shows up for.

8.4M
Monthly readers
5K+
Holidays tracked
Holiday Calendar for Brands Developer API