Head to head · Boys' names
Pablo vs Pedro
#429 vs #455 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Pablo is ahead (#429 vs #455 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Pablo and Pedro each lead 2 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Pablo #605, Pedro #363 — Pedro higher
- 1890s: Pablo #631, Pedro #346 — Pedro higher
- 1900s: Pablo #506, Pedro #289 — Pedro higher
- 1910s: Pablo #673, Pedro #359 — Pedro higher
- 1920s: Pablo #481, Pedro #293 — Pedro higher
- 1930s: Pablo #488, Pedro #293 — Pedro higher
- 1940s: Pablo #531, Pedro #313 — Pedro higher
- 1950s: Pablo #520, Pedro #303 — Pedro higher
- 1960s: Pablo #478, Pedro #286 — Pedro higher
- 1970s: Pablo #394, Pedro #230 — Pedro higher
- 1980s: Pablo #367, Pedro #205 — Pedro higher
- 1990s: Pablo #327, Pedro #196 — Pedro higher
- 2000s: Pablo #304, Pedro #228 — Pedro higher
- 2010s: Pablo #394, Pedro #354 — Pedro higher
- 2020s: Pablo #403, Pedro #423 — Pablo higher
Pedro stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Pablo took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Pablo | Pedro |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #605 | #363 |
| 1890s | #631 | #346 |
| 1900s | #506 | #289 |
| 1910s | #673 | #359 |
| 1920s | #481 | #293 |
| 1930s | #488 | #293 |
| 1940s | #531 | #313 |
| 1950s | #520 | #303 |
| 1960s | #478 | #286 |
| 1970s | #394 | #230 |
| 1980s | #367 | #205 |
| 1990s | #327 | #196 |
| 2000s | #304 | #228 |
| 2010s | #394 | #354 |
| 2020s | #403 | #423 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Pablo
- France#68
Pedro
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Pablo
small, humble
From the Latin cognomen Paulus, an ordinary Roman family name meaning 'small' or 'little'.
Paulus → Paulo → Pablo
How it traveled
Paulus began as a Roman cognomen, one of the plain descriptive surnames Latin families carried for generations. It spread far beyond Rome because Saul of Tarsus, the first-century missionary whose letters make up much of the New Testament, is known throughout Christendom as Paul — and wherever those letters were read, the name followed.
Pedro
Rock, stone
Greek Petros translates the Aramaic word for rock, kepha — the name given to the apostle Simon in the New Testament, where it appears in Greek as both Petros and Kephas.
Kepha → Petros → Petrus → Pedro
How it traveled
The name begins as a word rather than a name: Greek petros, "stone," used to render the Aramaic kepha in the Gospels, where the apostle Simon is renamed. Latin turned it into Petrus, and from Petrus the Romance languages each took their own road — Pierre in France, Pietro in Italy, Pere in Catalonia, and Pedro in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Pablo
PAH-bloh
Stress on the first syllable in both Spanish and English. Spanish gives the a a fuller, rounder sound and softens the b almost to a v between vowels; English speakers usually land on PAH-bloh, which everyone recognizes.
- Pablito — The standard Spanish diminutive, used affectionately within families and mostly in childhood.
- Pab — An informal English-language clipping, heard occasionally among friends rather than family.
- Pablo — Already short enough that most bearers use the full name in every setting, formal and casual alike.
Pedro
PEH-droh
Two syllables, stress on the first. In Spanish and Portuguese the r is a light tap; English speakers usually say PED-roh or PAY-droh, and both are widely accepted.
- Pedrito — The standard Spanish diminutive, affectionate and used mostly within the family and in childhood.
- Pedrinho — The Portuguese and Brazilian diminutive, common for boys and in sports commentary.
- Perico — A long-established Spanish familiar form; also a common word for a parakeet, so it reads as playful.
- Pete — Used in English-speaking settings by Pedros who work across both languages; borrowed from Peter rather than from Pedro itself.
- Also Pedrão.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Pablo if you want…
- a name most people already know#429 in 2025, 743 babies that year
- a name that charts abroad tooPablo is on the national lists of France
Choose Pedro if you want…
- a name fewer children share#455 in 2025 — pedro will almost certainly be the only one in school
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Pedrito, Pedrinho and Perico
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Pablo
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds and known on sight across the Spanish-speaking world, France, Italy and the English-speaking countries.
- A long unbroken record in American use, with no sharp fashion spike behind it — it has never been the name of one particular moment.
- Short, evenly stressed and easy for a small child to say and write.
To consider
- It reads as clearly Spanish, which some families want and others may find leads to assumptions about heritage or to a first-meeting question about where the name comes from.
- There is one very well-known Colombian bearer from the drug trade whose name still draws the odd joke — set against artists and poets who carried it too, but worth knowing in advance.
- No natural English nickname beyond the Spanish Pablito, so a child who wants a shortened everyday name has little to work with.
Pedro
Strengths
- Spelled the same in Spanish, Portuguese and English, with no variant spellings competing for it — rarely misspelled once heard.
- Maps directly onto Peter, Pierre, Pietro and Pere, so it connects a child to relatives with the same name in another language.
- An unbroken record from the medieval Iberian kingdoms to the present, with no gap that would date it to one generation.
To consider
- In English-only settings the vowels get flattened and the tapped r disappears, so the name your family says at home and the name a coach shouts across a field may not sound quite the same.
- The 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite put "Vote for Pedro" on T-shirts, and the phrase still surfaces. It has faded a good deal, but it is worth knowing about.
- Pedro has sometimes been used in American popular culture as a generic stand-in for a Spanish-speaking man, which can invite lazy jokes from people who deal in them.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Pablo and Pedro in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Pablo and Pedro?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- France's favorites still rare in America
- Names borrowed from poets
- Names borrowed from painters
- all guides
Where Pablo and Pedro each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Pablo or Pedro — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Pablo or Pedro?
- Pablo, in 2025: Pablo ranked #429 with 743 babies; Pedro ranked #455 with 684 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Pablo or Pedro?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Pablo moved down 44 places; Pedro moved down 45 places.
- Which is the older name, Pablo or Pedro?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Pablo and Pedro?
- About 43,500 people named Pablo are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 77,500 people named Pedro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Pablos or Pedros in the classroom?
- Pablo will almost certainly be the only one in school. Pedro will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Pablo, Pedro and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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