Pat Benatar's Real Name: Patricia Mae Andrzejewski

Quick answer: The singer is known professionally as Pat Benatar. AllMusic and a Biography.com profile both record the full name Patricia Mae Andrzejewski and the birth date January 10, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. A shorter Dictionary of Women Worldwide entry via Encyclopedia.com independently gives Patricia Andrzejewski, January 10, 1953, and Brooklyn, without the middle name.

Real name and early life

AllMusic's fact box lists the birth as January 10, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, and the alias Patricia Mae Andrzejewski. Its biography says Patricia Andrzejewski was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on that date and raised in Lindenhurst, on Long Island. Biography.com independently records Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, born January 10, 1953, in Brooklyn, and also says she was raised in Lindenhurst. Encyclopedia.com gives the shorter form Patricia Andrzejewski and the same date and borough. AllMusic says she later began singing in Richmond, Virginia, where she and her first husband, Dennis Benatar, were stationed, then moved to New York and performed at Catch a Rising Star before signing with Chrysalis Records, and that after they divorced she continued to use the surname Benatar. Biography.com independently notes the divorce from her high-school sweetheart and the professional surname that followed.

Career highlights

AllMusic and Biography.com both name her 1979 debut album, In the Heat of the Night, and the singles "Heartbreaker" and "I Need a Lover." Both then discuss the 1980 album Crimes of Passion and "Hit Me with Your Best Shot." AllMusic independently names the 1981 chart-topping album Precious Time and later hits including "Love Is a Battlefield" and "We Belong," and says she earned four Grammy Awards in the first half of the 1980s. Biography.com independently records four Grammy Awards and also names "Love Is a Battlefield." Encyclopedia.com independently lists those same singles, including "Heartbreaker," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Love Is a Battlefield," and "We Belong," and dates four consecutive Grammy wins to 1981 through 1984. AllMusic also names the later memoir Between a Heart and a Rock Place and the 2003 album Go. All three accounts discuss her long collaboration with guitarist Neil Giraldo, later her husband.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Pat Benatar, Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, or Patricia Andrzejewski are looking for the same singer. The professional surname comes from her first marriage; the sources used here agree she continued to use it after that marriage ended.