Paola
Meaning
“Italian feminine form of Paul, 'small, humble'”
The story
Paola is the Italian feminine of Paul, from the Latin for small, a name that treats smallness as elegance. Royalty found it in Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria, the Italian aristocrat who married into the Belgian royal family in 1959 and, when her husband unexpectedly became King Albert II in 1993, spent two decades as Queen Paola of the Belgians, bringing Italian warmth to a famously reserved court. In American records Paola scarcely appeared at all before the middle of the twentieth century; it then grew steadily for decades, carried along, it is fair to guess, by Spanish- and Italian-speaking communities for whom the name never went out of style, and its strongest showings have come in recent decades. It remains more familiar in Rome, Madrid, and Mexico City than in Minneapolis, which is exactly its appeal: an everyday classic elsewhere, a distinctive choice here.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Paola peaked in the 2000s.
Popularity in Brazil
61,663 people · the #497 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 3,289 · median age 20
Among people named Paola living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 3,621 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Paola
Most people given the name Paola in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Paola deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Paola truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Paola fits with your family’s names and surname.
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