Paula
- Pronunciation
- [Pau-la]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Small
- Origin
- Romanian
About the Name Paula
Paula is the feminine form of the Latin family name Paulus, meaning small or humble — a name carried by the Apostle Paul and later by Saint Paula of Rome, the fourth-century noblewoman and companion of Saint Jerome. Though Romanian usage has helped perpetuate the name in that tradition, Paula in fact circulates across Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and many other European traditions, all drawing from the same classical root. Its compact two-syllable structure and clean vowel ending gave it universal ease of pronunciation.
Paula Abdul (born 1962) is among the name's most recognised modern bearers: an American singer, songwriter, dancer, choreographer, and TV personality whose four-decade career has produced multiple American R&B-and-pop chart hits, plus an eight-season tenure as a judge on a leading American TV talent competition.
In US Social Security records, Paula first entered the top-1000 in 1943 and rose to a peak of #38 in 1954, accumulating more than 231,000 top-1000 births over its full charted span. Unusually, it has never left the chart — as recently as 2024 it ranked #753 with 374 births, demonstrating a staying power rare among names that peaked in the early postwar years. Recorded variants and nickname forms include Pauli, Paulie, Pavla, Polina, and Polly.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Paula
US Popularity History (1943–2025)
Annual US births named Paula by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1963 with 10,151 girls named Paula (girl rank #42 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #855 for girls (318 US births). That's 813 places below its 1963 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.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Paula Most Popular?
Average girl-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 girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Paula the strongest states are Texas, Arizona, Florida.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #398 | 762 |
| 2 | Arizona | #412 | 159 |
| 3 | Florida | #479 | 350 |
| 4 | California | #571 | 576 |
| 5 | New Jersey | #757 | 65 |
| 6 | Illinois | #764 | 114 |
| 7 | Colorado | #765 | 21 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #789 | 26 |
| 9 | Washington | #833 | 24 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #836 | 35 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | #961 | 25 |
| 2 | New York | #912 | 89 |
| 3 | Tennessee | #879 | 24 |
| 4 | North Carolina | #836 | 35 |
| 5 | Washington | #833 | 24 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #789 | 26 |
| 7 | Colorado | #765 | 21 |
| 8 | Illinois | #764 | 114 |
| 9 | New Jersey | #757 | 65 |
| 10 | California | #571 | 576 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Paula in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Paula
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Paula.
- Paula Abdul — Pop Singer (1962)
Looking for names like Paula?
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 Paula to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Paula against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
Paula Baby Name Ideas
- Can You Use a Different-Gender Name as an Honor Name? Building a Recognizable Family Connection
- Top 100 Baby Names in Mexico and Their Meanings
- Top Celebrity Baby Girl Names
- 100 Biblical Girl Names For Your Pretty Baby Girls
- Top 1000 Most Popular Girl Names In U.S. Of 2015
- Top 100 Girl Baby Names in Spain
- 300 Pretty Girl Names End With La
- 10 Elegant And Unusual Baby Names
- 30 Unique Baby Names Meaning Humble