Paloma
Feminine · Latin roots · “Dove”
Paloma is the Spanish word for dove, used as a given name for centuries and spelled the same way in Spanish, Portuguese and English. It moves in the mouth the way its middle syllable suggests — pah-LOH-mah, three even beats with a soft landing — and it has been carried across the Atlantic without losing a letter.
How old is the name Paloma?
Paloma first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Paloma alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 10,500 people named Paloma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Paloma most popular?
Paloma peaked in 2010, reaching #700 nationally. Today it ranks #792, 92 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Paloma appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From palumbes (Latin) to Paloma
The story of Paloma
The word came into Spanish from Latin palumbes, and Spanish speakers turned it into a name as they did with other words of grace and devotion. Madrid has honored the Virgen de la Paloma since the eighteenth century, and her August feast is still one of the city's great neighborhood festivals — a direct line from the word to the name. The dove gathered another layer of meaning in the twentieth century as an emblem of peace, and Pablo Picasso, who drew that dove, named his daughter Paloma in 1949. In the United States the name has been on record for a full century, most at home where Spanish is spoken daily.
Meaning
Dove
From Spanish paloma, dove or pigeon, which descends from Latin palumbes, the wood pigeon.
How the name formed
- palumbesLatin
- palomaSpanish
- Paloma
Related forms: Paloma · Colomba · Colombe · Coloma · Columba
Pronouncing Paloma
pah-LOH-mah
Stress falls on the middle syllable. In Spanish all three vowels are clean and open; English speakers often soften the final one toward puh-LOH-muh, which is widely accepted.
Nicknames for Paloma
High
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
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 2009411 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #700reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- +28.0%343 in 2025, from 268
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.
Paloma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Paloma in Portuguese — same name
- Colomba in Italian — related form
- Colombe in French — related form
- Coloma in Catalan — related form
- Columba in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Palomas among us
people named Paloma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,686 born in 2025 was named Paloma
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 Eloisa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Paloma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eloisa climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eloisa's path sketches the road Paloma is walking now.
Paloma is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Paloma is headed
Paloma 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.
Paloma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Paloma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds in Spanish, and phonetic enough in English that most people get it right on the first try.
- One spelling works unchanged in Spanish, Portuguese and English — no adjustment needed across borders or generations.
- A word-name with a meaning almost every Spanish speaker knows instantly, and a symbol recognized far beyond that.
- A hundred years of unbroken presence in US records, and currently moving upward rather than fading.
- In Spanish it is an ordinary noun, and that noun covers both doves and city pigeons. Most speakers hear the dove; a few will make the pigeon joke, usually once.
- Outside Spanish-speaking communities the stress can drift to the first syllable, so expect to correct pah-LOH-mah gently now and then.
- The short forms are real but mostly live inside Spanish-speaking families; in English-speaking settings the full three syllables tend to be what everyone uses.
- She is unlikely to meet another Paloma at school. That means a name that is always hers, and also a name that is always slightly explained.
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What they receive
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Paloma
Feminine · Latin roots · #792 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Palomas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,500 people named Paloma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Paloma in 2025?
- Paloma ranks #792 among US girl names in 2025, with 343 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Paloma?
- About 1 in every 4,686 US girls born in 2025 was named Paloma — 343 in all.
- Will my child share the name Paloma with classmates?
- Paloma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Paloma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alaiya#792 · Yareli#792 · Rayna#795 · Cielo#795 · Elouise#788 · Klarity#788 · Emiliana#788 · Judith#788
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Paloma? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Paloma and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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