Pate
A Scottish and northern English surname that can be a short form of Patrick, with some old evidence also linking it to a word for a badger.
The #1,208 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 10,528 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The main traditional explanation is that Pate is a short form of Patrick, especially in Scotland and northern England. Some 19th-century writers also connected it with a northern dialect word pate meaning “badger,” which led to a few related surnames being explained as nicknames or occupational bynames. The name may also be influenced by older forms such as Patey and related pet forms of Patrick.
History
The surname appears in medieval and early modern English and Scottish records, especially in northern areas. Later surname dictionaries treated it chiefly as a familiar form of Patrick, though some writers preferred a nickname explanation from the dialect word for a badger. Related surnames such as Pateman were sometimes glossed as meaning “Pate’s man” or as a byname based on that same dialect word.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century source noted that Pate could also mean “badger” in northern speech, so the same surname was once explained in two very different ways: as a pet form of Patrick or as a nickname from an animal word.
From the historical record
“of the O.E. fil. suff. -ing\ PATE, a Scot, and N. Eng. dim. of Patrick, q.v. ; rarely of Peter, q.v. PATEMAN = Pate's Man (-Servant). PATER I a contr. of Paternoster, q.v. . 2 a form of Peter, q.v. PATERNOSTER (A.-Lat.) PATERNOSTRERi i.e. . maker of, or dealer in, paternosters (rosaries) [M.E. paternostrer ; Lat. Pater”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)