Pamula
Feminine · “possibly all sweetness”
Pamula writes an unstressed syllable with a u, which changes nothing that can be heard. The name itself was invented for a book, and the book that made it general was mocked so effectively that the mockery has outlasted a good deal of the original.
How old is the name Pamula?
Pamula first appears in US birth records in 1945 — 80 years ago. The typical Pamula alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 600 people named Pamula are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Pamula most popular?
Pamula peaked in 1962, reaching #1826 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Pamela to Pamula
The story of Pamula
Samuel Richardson's novel about a servant girl resisting her employer was an enormous success — arguably the first English novel in the modern sense and certainly the first English publishing phenomenon, with fans holding readings and ringing church bells when the heroine finally married. It was also, to a large number of readers, insufferable: the heroine's virtue is rewarded with the hand of the man who spent the book assaulting her, and the moral arithmetic struck many people as grotesque. Henry Fielding published an anonymous parody within months, retelling the story as the diary of a calculating young woman named Shamela who is running the whole thing as a business proposition, and it is very funny. He followed it with a second, longer novel spun off from the same joke, and that one turned him into a novelist. The name went on being given regardless.
Meaningscholars disagree
possibly all sweetness
The name was coined by a poet for a prose romance in the fifteen-eighties, apparently out of Greek elements meaning all and honey, though he left no explanation and the derivation is a reconstruction. It was rare for a century and a half until a novel made it common.
How the name formed
- Pamela
- Pamula
Pronouncing Pamula
PAM-yuh-luh
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The changed vowel sits in a syllable that reduces almost to nothing, which is why it can be written with an e or a u and sound the same.
Nicknames for Pamula
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
- 1945
- Most girls named
- 196239 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1826reached in 1962
- Change vs 1980
- −27.3%8 in 1981, from 11
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.
Pamulas among us
people named Pamula 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
Pamula 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
- Pam comes off it at once and needs no explanation anywhere.
- Front stress on three syllables is a comfortable and familiar rhythm.
- The name has a documented author and a documented date, which very few do.
- Pamela is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- The changed vowel is inaudible, so the spelling must be given aloud every time.
- The name's meaning is a scholarly reconstruction rather than something its author recorded.
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What they receive
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Pamula
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Pamulas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Pamula are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Pamula in 2025?
- Pamula is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Pamula with classmates?
- Pamula will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Patricia#1334 · Pamela#2239 · Phyllis#11932 · Peggy#8362 · Paula#853 · Pauline#2957 · Pearl#776 · Paige#346
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Pamula? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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