Pablo
Masculine · “small”
Pablo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 50,370 boys against 69 girls since 1880.
Pablo is the Spanish form of a Latin name that traveled with the letters of the Apostle Paul into every corner of Europe, then out again across the Atlantic. Two beats, both open vowels, the stress landing first — it is the kind of name that carries across a playground without being shouted. Familiar to nearly everyone in the United States, yet rarely duplicated in a classroom.
How old is the name Pablo?
Pablo was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Pablo alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 43,500 people named Pablo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Pablo most popular?
Pablo peaked in 2005, reaching #284 nationally. Today it ranks #429, 145 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Pablo appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Paulus to Pablo
The story of Pablo
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. Latin Paulus became Paolo in Italy, Paulo in Portugal, Paul in France, England and Germany, and Pablo in Spanish, where the l and the u traded places. Spanish speakers carried it to the Americas, and it has been in continuous use in the United States for as long as American names have been counted.
Meaning
small, humble
From the Latin cognomen Paulus, an ordinary Roman family name meaning 'small' or 'little'.
How the name formed
- Paulus
- Paulo
- Pablo
Related forms: Paul · Paolo · Paulo · Pau · Pavel · Paweł
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Pablo
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20071,095 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #284reached in 2005
- Change vs 2022
- −4.4%743 in 2025, from 777
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Pablo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Paul in English, French, German — same name
- Paolo in Italian — same name
- Paulo in Portuguese — same name
- Pau in Catalan — same name
- Pavel in Russian — same name
- Paweł in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE. Sources
Pablos among us
people named Pablo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,299 born in 2025 was named Pablo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Elvin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Pablo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elvin climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elvin's path sketches the road Pablo is walking now.
Pablo sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Pablo is headed
Pablo should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Pablo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Pablo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- Descends from one of the most widely borne names in European history, so it sits comfortably beside relatives named Paul, Paulo or Pavel.
- 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.
- In American mouths the first vowel sometimes flattens to PAB-loh; easy to correct, and both versions are understood.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Pablo to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Pablo
Masculine · #429 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Pablos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 43,500 people named Pablo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Pablo in 2025?
- Pablo ranks #429 among US boy names in 2025, with 743 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Pablo?
- About 1 in every 2,299 US boys born in 2025 was named Pablo — 743 in all.
- Will my child share the name Pablo with classmates?
- Pablo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Pablo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Wilder#429 · Nehemiah#429 · Lian#428 · Tadeo#427 · Isaias#426 · Raiden#432 · Lucca#425 · Lewis#433
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Pablo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Pablo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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