Patrick

Patrick comes from the Latin patricius, the word for a nobleman of the old patrician order of Rome. The short meaning holds close to that root: szlachetnie urodzony, a person nobly born. The root points to rank.

Saint Patrick, the fifth-century missionary and patron of Ireland, gave the name its Celtic home. Through him the Latin word became thoroughly Irish, then English, and for centuries it ranked among the most common names across the British Isles. It kept its Irish colour even as it travelled.

In Poland the feast of Saint Patrick falls on 17 March. A child called Patrick meets that date on a school register and on the name-day list at the urząd, while the older sense, patrycjusz, sits quietly inside the Latin patricius.