It's pretty much universally known that March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, is the one day each and every year when anyone and everyone, regardless of their heritage is welcome to become Irish, if only for a couple of hours. St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday and I have absolutely no problem with the world celebrating my heritage along with me. The more the merrier, right?  

This is the time of year when we start to see and hear people throw out "St. Patty's Day"  and "St. Paddy's Day."  But, which is right or, are they both? You might think that it's not really a big deal and that either of those terms is acceptable to use but the truth is that one is way truly is wrong.

If you don't want to take the time to fully say 'St. Patrick's Day,' the next best thing you could say would be "St. Paddy's Day' and the reason makes a ton of sense.

The website Paddy Not Patty explains why St. Patrick's Day should be referred to as St. Paddy's Day and not St. Patty's Day. You see, Patty is actually a woman's nickname (short for Patricia) so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to refer to St. Patrick's Day as one that honors a woman because as we all know, St. Patrick was a man. 

The reason that 'Paddy' is acceptable is that the D's in 'Paddy' comes from the Irish spelling of the name Patrick, which is spelled Pádraig.

And now you know!

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