It's Pat!

The Republican gubernatorial nominee is fairly set on his first name. It's Pat.

Though he occasionally goes by Patrick, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory has generally favored the shortened version of his first name.

He was listed as Pat on all but one ballot in municipal races between 1995 and 2007 as well as in the May primary. Only in the 2001 ballot was he listed as "Patrick L. (Pat) McCrory."

Both his campaign and official mayoral Web sites list him as "Pat," although a few scattered references to "Patrick" can be found on the city site.

Google heavily favors "Pat," with 55,700 hits over 5,680 for "Patrick" — a 10-to-1 ratio. And the state's newspapers have only used the longer name 57 times compared to thousands for the short version.

Not to mention that McCrory referred to himself as "Uncle Pat" in his kickoff speech.

As with "Bev" Perdue and "Kay" Hagan, "Pat" McCrory is a more friendly version of his name that no doubt serves to make him seem more accessible.