Pamela
Masculine
Pamela is given to girls far more often — 595,076 girls against 1,386 boys since 1880. See Pamela as a girl name
Pamela was invented for a poem in the fifteen eighties and made ordinary by a novel a century and a half later, and the novel was mocked so quickly and so effectively that the parody is still read. Within a year of publication a rival novelist had produced a short book taking the heroine apart, and the argument about what the original was actually saying has never entirely stopped.
How old is the name Pamela?
Pamela first appears in US birth records in 1941 — 84 years ago. The typical Pamela alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 1,100 people named Pamela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Pamela most popular?
Pamela peaked in 1963, reaching #947 nationally. See the whole 1963 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Invented for an Elizabethan prose romance to Pamela
The story of Pamela
The novel is about a servant who resists her employer's attempts on her and is eventually married by him, and it was published as a moral instruction. It sold enormously and it divided readers immediately: one camp read it as a defense of virtue, the other as a manual for advantageous marriage, and within months a very funny short book appeared recasting the heroine as a calculating operator with a talent for timing. The parody is by a major novelist and is still in print. What the episode demonstrates is that the reception of a book can be contested from the first week, and that a name entering the language through fiction arrives carrying whichever reading the reader brings.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name was invented and its inventor left no explanation. The reading usually offered, built from Greek words for all and honey, is a later reconstruction by people working backwards from the letters, and there is no evidence he had those words in mind. A coined name may have no meaning at all, which is worth saying rather than supplying one.
How the name formed
- Invented for an Elizabethan prose romance
- Used for the heroine of a hugely successful novel
- Parodied within a year by a rival novelist
- Very widely used in mid-century America
Related forms: Pamela · Pamela
Pronouncing Pamela
PAM-uh-luh
Three syllables, stress on the first, in modern use. When it was coined the stress fell on the second syllable, and it stayed there for two centuries before moving forward, which is a documented shift rather than a matter of opinion.
Nicknames for Pamela
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
- 1941
- Most boys named
- 196363 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #947reached in 1963
- Change vs 1999
- 0.0%5 in 2004, 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.
Pamela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Pamela in Italian — same name
- Pamela in Spanish — same name
Pamelas among us
people named Pamela are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Pamela sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is completely familiar, universally spellable and needs no explaining.
- Pam is immediate and about as unpretentious as an English short form gets.
- It has a documented inventor and a documented literary history.
- It is strongly associated with one American generation.
- There is no meaning to give, and the pretty one usually offered is a reconstruction.
- The spelling is on the register for boys as well, in very small numbers.
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What they receive
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Pamela
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Pamelas 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 Pamela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Pamela in 2025?
- Pamela is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Pamela with classmates?
- Pamela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Paul#262 · Patrick#235 · Peter#187 · Philip#527 · Phillip#651 · Parker#102 · Preston#299 · Pedro#455
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Pamela? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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