Patience
About Patience
Patience is a passive virtue turned engaging name, fresher than Hope, Faith, or even Charity. Its resemblance to the trendy Payton may be one reason that it returned to the US charts back in the 90's and 2000s, having been absent for a century.
Common in the seventeenth century, Patience is the eponymous heroine of a Gilbert & Sullivan comic operetta. In literature, Patience appears in Shakespeare's Henry VIII and in Anthony Trollope's novel, The Eustace Diamonds
In the 2004 film Catwoman, the non-superhero name of the protagonist, played by Halle Berry, is Patience Phillips--which may have caused the name's bump in popularity two years later. It remained in the charts until 2014, however, it has now declined.
Its disappearance might be down to parents finding Patience a little too much like Prudence, Chastity, or Temperance: names that could feel heavy to wear or live up to. Alternatively, it could have just been pushed out by a new wave of virtue options, such as True, Chosen, Felicity, and Sage.
Still, Patience would be an unexpected choice, and nickname Penny would be pretty sweet!
Pronounced PAY-shunts.
As of October 2026, Patience ranked #1297 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #578 in 2006.
Editor: Pamela Redmond
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #983 | 272 | 152.3 |
| 2015 | #1,070 | 246 | 137.8 |
| 2016 | #1,206 | 206 | 116.3 |
| 2017 | #1,301 | 181 | 104.8 |
| 2018 | #1,147 | 213 | 125.2 |
| 2019 | #1,071 | 236 | 140.6 |
| 2020 | #1,080 | 229 | 141.7 |
| 2021 | #1,084 | 231 | 140.8 |
| 2022 | #1,186 | 203 | 123.8 |
| 2023 | #1,209 | 197 | 122.8 |
| 2024 | #1,330 | 172 | 106.2 |
| 2025 | #1,297 | 172 | 107 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Patience.
- Buffy
- Maxina
- Kitty
- Glinda
- Mimi
- Ginger
- Charity
- Wanda
- Fifi
- Barbie
- Mercy
- Rita
- Queenie
- Cassity
- Bonita
- Valentine
- Pansy
- Freddy
- Doll
- Petunia
Patience on lists
Famous Patiences
- Patience Jane Wheatcroft
Baroness Wheatcroft, English journalist and politician
- Patience Ann McIntyre
American singer of duo Prudence & Patience, with sister Prudence Ann McIntyre
- Patience Marie Josephine Kama Dabany
singer and former First Lady of Gabon
- Patience Cooper
Indian silent film actress
- Patience Kemper
American child actress
- Patience Hodgson
lead singer of Australian band The Grates
Patience in pop culture
- "Patience
" song by Take That
- "Patience
" novel by Daniel Clowes
- Patience Buckner
character in the movie "Cabin in the Woods"
- Patience
character on TV's "Firefly"
- Remember Patience "Mem" Whipple
character in the Dear America book series
- Patience Muffet
English girl who may have inspired the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet
- Patience Phillips
character in movie "Catwoman"
- "Patience
" song by Guns N Roses
- "Patience; or
Bunthorne's Bride," opera by Gilbert & Sullivan
- Patience "Patsy" Mount
character on TV's "Call the Midwife"
- Patience Merlyn
character from Daphne du Maurier's "Jamaica Inn"
- Patience Turner
character in Supernatural and it's spin,off; Wayward Sisters