Palma
Feminine · “palm”
Palma is the same word for two quite different things, and Latin saw the connection before English lost it. Palma is the palm of the hand, and it is also the palm tree — named for the tree, because a spread frond looks like an open hand. English kept both meanings in one word and stopped noticing they were related.
How old is the name Palma?
Palma first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Palma alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 1,100 people named Palma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Palma most popular?
Palma peaked in 1914, reaching #692 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 14,250 places below that high. See the whole 1914 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From palma to Palma
The story of Palma
Italian and Spanish naming has long marked the day a child was born with the name — Natale for Christmas, Pascual for Easter, Domenico for Sunday — and Palma belongs to that group: a child born on Palm Sunday, the feast that begins Holy Week with branches. The name is also a place, Palma de Mallorca, and a surname across Italy and Spain. It reached American records with Italian and Spanish emigration in the late nineteenth century and has stayed close to those families, which is why it has never picked up an American respelling.
Meaning
palm; the flat of the hand
Latin palma names the flat of the hand first and the tree by extension, and the metaphor is visible the moment it is pointed out. The word also came to mean a victory, because a palm frond was the token given to a winner — which is why English has to bear the palm and palmary. All of that is documented and none of it is argued. Palma as a personal name draws on the tree and, through the church, on Palm Sunday.
How the name formed
- palma
- Palma
Related forms: Palma · Palma · Palmira · Palmira
Pronouncing Palma
PAHL-mah
PAHL-mah in Italian and Spanish, two syllables, both vowels full and the l clearly sounded. English speakers say PAHM-uh, dropping the l the way they do in palm and calm, which produces a noticeably shorter name.
Nicknames for Palma
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 1925100 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #692reached in 1914
- Change vs 2004
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
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.
Palma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Palma in Italian — same name
- Palma in Spanish — same name
- Palmira in Italian — related form
- Palmira in Spanish — related form
Palmas among us
people named Palma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Palma
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Palma 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
Palma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Palma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete, visual and comes with a metaphor worth explaining.
- It is said the way it is written in Italian and Spanish, with nothing silent.
- Two syllables with a firm first stress, which carries a longer surname well.
- English drops the l in palm, so the name will be said without it and the spelling will look odd as a result.
- Pam and Paloma are both close enough to be substituted, and Pam especially.
- The name belongs to an earlier American century and has not yet come back into general use.
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Palma
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Palmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Palma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Palma in 2025?
- Palma ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Palma?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Palma — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Palma with classmates?
- Palma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Palma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Palma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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