Everyone, Marcus Would Like You To Know It’s “Paddy”, not “Patty”

Today is St Patrick's Day!  Joy!  I know a lot of great stuff is going on this weekend, and a lot of you are wearing green to day to celebrate.

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I mean, I'm not, but that's becuase I forgot.  And I just pulled a shirt from the clean laundry pile that actually ended up being a shirt I wore earlier this week.

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But as you go around this weekend, you may be wondering, why are there two spellings for this holiday?  I mean, Paddy vs Patty.   Well, turns out, there is a correct way to say it, and we have been doing it WRONG.

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In fact, there's a whole website put up to tell us exactly how we've gotten it wrong.  IT's called PaddyNotPatty.com.  I know I'm not supposed to quote more than one sentence internet watchdog team, but... it's just too good.

Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig: the source of those mysterious, emerald double-Ds.  Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella. There isn’t a sinner in Ireland that would refer to a Patrick as “Patty”. It’s as simple as that.

I know it might be tempting to take the website's owner, Malcolm, at his word, since he seems Irish and all.  But I decided to keep looking and found out that Mental Floss backs him up with a very similar explanation, which you can read if you click here. And if you scroll down a bit... you'll see that THEY QUOTE HIM, TOO.

So, Gentle Reader, feel free to take this little tidbit of trivia with you as you celebrate St Patrick's day this weekend at the Parade, Bed Races, Pub Crawl, etc.  It's Paddy, not Patty!

Paddily yours,

Behka