A female name. like other abstract nouns, came into use as a christian name in the 17th C, e.g Sir Thomas Carew, Speaker of the House of Commons in the reigns of James I and Charles I, had four dd. named Patience, Temperance, Silence, and Prudence. Patience was in the 17th C often also a man’s name. It is sometimes abbreviated to Patty.

Either Latin patiens, ‘long-suffering,’ or patientia, patience,’ it achieved a vogue among the Puritans and is still fairly common in English rural districts. It is of the Prudence, Faith, Mercy, Charity group of f. baptismal names.

Found as a male as well as a female name. Conf. N. Q. 6th S. iv. 168. The name explains itself. A correspondent of N. Q. 6th S. iv. 356, says of Sir Patience Ward, Lord Mayor of London, 1680-1, ‘In some memoirs which he is said to have left of his own life he gives the following account of the origin of his baptismal name. His mother having had six sons, the father began to think the family increased too fast for his estate, and he made a vow that if there was another son he would call him Patience. Another son was born, and, though it was tried to persuade him from doing so by his friends, he kept his word, and gave him the name at his baptism. Sir Patience had a great-nephew called after him, who had a son named Patientius. Conf. also the name St. Patiens, of Lyons.

A Latin name, meaning: Possessing the rare quality of quiet endurance.