Paolo
Meaning
small, humble (Italian form of Paul); a spelling favored by modern Filipino families
The story
Paolo is the Italian form of Paulus, small, and Italy has spent centuries disproving the meaning. Paolo Uccello, the Renaissance painter, was so obsessed with perspective that he stayed up all night in his study chasing the exact vanishing point; his Battle of San Romano panels came out of that obsession in the late 1430s. Paolo Maldini played 25 seasons of top-flight football, every one of them for Milan, debuting at 16 and retiring at 40 with 26 trophies, five of them European Cups. The American record keeps a modest column: 3,739 boys in total, cresting gently at about 1,000 in the 2000s. In Brazil the census finds only 2,365, because Portuguese already has the name in its own spelling and Paulo answers for 1.3 million. A small name, in the sense that a one-club man is a small decision.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Paolo peaked in the 2000s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
2,365 people · the #4,564 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 83,333 · median age 33
Among people named Paolo living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 155 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Paolo
Most people given the name Paolo 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 Paolo deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Paolo 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 Paolo fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Italian baby names · Filipino baby names · Names of soccer legends
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