Multnomah County Judge Amy Holmes Hehn (pictured) granted a petition allowing Patrick Abbatiello to go from male to 'agender' and switch to the single name Patch

A Portland student has become the first person in the US to be designated 'genderless'.

Multnomah County Judge Amy Holmes Hehn granted a petition on March 10 allowing Patrick Abbatiello to go from male to 'agender' and switch to the single name Patch.

The Ore­gon judge, who last year ruled that a transgender person can legally change their sex to 'non-binary' gave the OK for Patch to be genderless.

People who are agender see themselves as neither a man nor a woman and have no gender identity.

The 27-year-old Patch writes and designs video games and had been using the name Patch since well before the decision to legally change.

An acquaintance applied it more than a decade ago and it stuck.

'It's not that I decided I was genderless — that's just how it is,' Patch said. 'I never felt like I fell within any part of the gender spectrum. None of the binary options, nothing in-between.

'I don't consider myself non-binary because that's an umbrella term for anything that isn't binary, which is gender identity.'

Patch first heard the term agender six or seven years ago: 'Prior to that I would just do my best to avoid the question of gender, and the discussion of my gender.'

The same judge allowed Jamie Shupe to legally change to non-­binary in June 2016.

Experts believe it was the first ruling of its kind in the US, and it led others in Oregon and elsewhere to seek the same designation.

Patch, who doesn't use pronouns, sought the name and gender change on January 23, and it was granted in a typical timeframe. Patch attends Portland Community College (pictured) and works as a co-coordinator at the college's Queer Resource Center

The case made Patch think there was more of a possibility of legally becoming agender.

Patch, who doesn't use pronouns, sought the name and gender change on January 23, and it was granted in a typical timeframe.

Patch said the court clerk was handling those who had name-or-gender change forms. Patch; however, had to wait for the judge because the male-to-agender language was unique.

'The judge took the form and signed it through,' Patch said. 'Took a look at it and that was it. Didn't speak to me or anything.'

In an email, the judge told NBC News, which first reported about the case, that her decisions were supported by facts and law.

Patch attends Portland Community College and works as a co-coordinator at the college's Queer Resource Center.