Paola
Feminine · “small”
Paola is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 24,496 girls against 148 boys since 1880.
Paola is the Italian form of a name Rome used first — Paulus — and it kept the shape Italian gives to Latin words, letting the L soften away until three vowels sit together in the middle: PAH-oh-lah. It traveled with Spanish as well as Italian, which is why it is at home on both sides of the Atlantic, and why in the United States it has been strongest in Texas, California and Florida.
How old is the name Paola?
Paola first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Paola alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 24,000 people named Paola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Paola most popular?
Paola peaked in 1999, reaching #300 nationally. Today it ranks #1258, 958 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Paola appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Paulus to Paola
The story of Paola
Paulus began as a Roman family surname, an ordinary Latin word for 'small' pressed into service as a name. It spread across the Christian world because of the apostle Paul, and every language that took it in reshaped it: Italian dropped the L between the vowels, turning Paulus into Paolo, and Paolo into the feminine Paola. Spanish kept Paula closer to the Latin but borrowed Paola too, and it became widely used across Latin America. Both roads lead to American records, which is part of why the name reads as Italian to some families and Spanish to others.
Meaning
small, humble
From the Latin cognomen Paulus, an adjective meaning 'small'. Paola is its Italian feminine form.
How the name formed
- Paulus
- Paulus/Paula
- Paolo
- Paola
Related forms: Paula · Paule · Paula · Paulina · Pavla · Paoletta
Pronouncing Paola
PAH-oh-lah
Three syllables in both Italian and Spanish, with the stress on the first. English speakers who see it cold often flatten it to two — PAOW-la — or reach for Paula instead, so expect to correct the middle vowel now and then.
Nicknames for Paola
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 20061,089 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #300reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −22.6%178 in 2025, from 230
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.
Paola in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Paula in Spanish — related form
- Paule in French — related form
- Paula in Portuguese — related form
- Paulina in Polish — related form
- Pavla in Czech — related form
- Paoletta in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Paolas among us
people named Paola are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,030 born in 2025 was named Paola
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 Tennille test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Paola's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tennille climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tennille's path sketches the road Paola is walking now.
Paola 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 Paola is headed
Paola 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.
Paola beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Paola in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in English, Spanish and Italian — same spelling, near-identical sound, no adaptation needed when it crosses a border.
- Short forms already exist and are in real use, from Pao to Paolita, so there is room for both the formal and the familiar.
- Traces back in an unbroken line to a Latin name, with a documented meaning parents can state plainly.
- Familiar enough that no one asks what it is, uncommon enough that a classroom is unlikely to hold two.
- Paula is the name people default to when they mishear or mistype it, and that confusion runs both ways for life. It is a small, permanent correction rather than a real obstacle.
- The three-vowel middle trips up English speakers on first reading, and some will land on a two-syllable version. Saying it once usually settles it.
- The name is stepping back from its high point in US records, which puts it in a familiar age band — strongly represented among adults now in their twenties, thinner among today's babies.
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What they receive
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Paola
Feminine · #1258 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Paolas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 24,000 people named Paola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Paola in 2025?
- Paola ranks #1258 among US girl names in 2025, with 178 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Paola?
- About 1 in every 9,030 US girls born in 2025 was named Paola — 178 in all.
- Will my child share the name Paola with classmates?
- Paola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Paola
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Liz#1258 · Aarya#1258 · Tillie#1261 · Areli#1261 · Heather#1261 · Marlene#1261 · Isadora#1261 · Alba#1261
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Paola? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Paola and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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