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Girl · Latin
Paula
Say it: PAW-luh
Meaning
Latin, feminine of Paulus 'small'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Widely used in the 20th century; Paola is the Italian form.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1960s
In the United States
- 279,967 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1963, about 1 in 190 girls
- 334 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianLatinEnglishSpanishItalianPortugueseGermanPolish
The family of the name
| French | Paule |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Paula |
| Italian | Paola |
| Portuguese | Paula |
| German | Paula |
| Polish | Paula |
| Czech | Pavla |
Famous bearers
- Paula of Rome, 4th-century companion of Jerome
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.