Pablo
- Pronunciation
- [Pab-lo]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Little. Form Of Paul.
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Pablo
Pablo is the Spanish form of Paul (see separate entry on Paul for the Latin Paulus etymology meaning "small" or "humble" — referring to the apostle Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, who became one of the most-influential figures in early Christianity through his missionary work and his epistles in the New Testament). The Latinate Pablo has been used continuously across Spanish-speaking Catholic naming traditions for centuries.
Notable bearers include the iconic Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, 1881–1973, the iconic Spanish-French Cubist painter widely considered one of the most-influential artists of the 20th century); Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, 1904–1973, the iconic Chilean poet, diplomat, and Nobel Prize laureate); Spanish cellist Pablo Casals (1876–1973); and contemporary Argentine soccer star Pablo Aimar.
Pablo has been continuously used in Spanish-speaking American communities for over a century. The name climbed into the US top 300 boys' rank by 1985 and held the top 300 since, driven primarily by Spanish-language naming influence. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-Catholic-apostolic-Spanish pedigree combined with two firm syllables — the in-built apostolic-religious anchor, the strong Pablo Picasso and Pablo Neruda cultural anchors (one art-historical, one literary), and tonal warmth distinctive to Spanish-language naming. Common nicknames Pab (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Pablito, and the rare Lo each carry distinct registers; international forms include Paul (English/French/German), Paolo (Italian), Paulo (Portuguese), Paweł (Polish), and the original Latin Paulus.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Pablo
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Pablo by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2006 with 1,174 boys named Pablo (boy rank #292 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #430 for boys (743 US births). That's 138 places below its 2006 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Pablo Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Pablo the strongest states are Texas, Arizona, California.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #219 | 1,695 |
| 2 | Arizona | #246 | 321 |
| 3 | California | #254 | 1,514 |
| 4 | New Mexico | #347 | 52 |
| 5 | Florida | #361 | 465 |
| 6 | Nevada | #374 | 71 |
| 7 | Oregon | #403 | 85 |
| 8 | Colorado | #429 | 134 |
| 9 | Connecticut | #440 | 34 |
| 10 | Illinois | #449 | 228 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Pablo in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Pablo
3 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Pablo.
- Pablo Casals was an influential and esteemed cellist and conductor of the 20th century.
- Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, politician and Nobel laureate.
- Pablo Picasso — Painter (1881)
Looking for names like Pablo?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Pablo to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Pablo against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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