Is it St. Patty's or St. Paddy's Day? Survey reveals 49% spell it wrong

Before you put up your St. Patrick's Day weekend Instagram post, stop to check the spelling in your caption.

A recent study from the language learning platform Preply revealed that 49% of the people who responded to the survey thought the abbreviation for St. Patrick's Day is spelled "St. Patty's," but that's wrong.

It's actually spelled "St. Paddy's." Here's why.

Is it St. Patty's or St. Paddy's Day?

The correct spelling is "St. Paddy's" but people often misspell it as "St. Patty's."

Preply compared results from a 2019 poll in which 49% said they prefer "St. Patty's" and Google Trends and TikTok data for both spellings. All three sources showed that the most popular spelling is the wrong one.

Where did the nickname Paddy come from?

"Pádraig is the Gaelic or Irish origin of the name Patrick which is colloquially shortened to Paddy, hence the abbreviation 'St Paddy's Day.' In Ireland, 'Patty' is a common diminutive of the female name Patricia," Preply's Head of Methodology Sylvia Johnson said.

"So, the Americanized abbreviation of 'Patty's Day' for St Patrick's Day isn't a true or recognized phrase elsewhere when talking about the patron saint."

In the 19th century, "Paddy" turned into a dismissive and disrespectful name, as more Irish people began to move to the U.S.

Linguists and etymologists think that the term "paddy wagon" stemmed from one of two Irish stereotypes: Either that many Irish people became police officers or the perception of drunken Irish men finding themselves as passengers in police cars, according to the Inclusion Solution .

Why do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17? Why do we wear green?

According to the Library of Congress , St. Patrick's Day is "an Irish and Irish-American holiday commemorating the death, as legend has it, of Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, on March 17, circa 492."

But most of the traditions we now associate with St. Patrick's Day have nothing to do with the patron saint of Ireland or his death. For example, wearing green. Wearing green on St. Patrick's Day actually comes from 18th Century Ireland, when Irish people made green a symbol of Irish rebellion and nationalism under Britain's rule.

Wearing green on the holiday was loosely tied to Saint Patrick, but a more direct symbol of the patron saint of Ireland was the three-leaf shamrock.

"The significance of the three-leafed shamrock comes from St. Patrick himself," Irish Historian Elizabeth Stack said in a History.com article. "He used the shamrock to describe the three forms of God — the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit — to convert early Irish people to Christianity."

There's also a superstitious reason for wearing green on St. Paddy's, but its origin is more American than Irish. The legend suggests that wearing green will keep you safe from being pinched by a leprechaun.

"No one in Ireland is worried that they will be pinched if they don't wear green," says a post on History.com. "The mischievous mythical creatures don't actually have anything to do with the feast day of Ireland's patron saint, who is credited with spreading Christianity on the island in the fifth century, in part by blending its rituals with customs of the ancient Celtic pagan religion."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: St. Patrick's Day: Why the nickname Paddy and why do we wear green?