Paul
Meaning
small, humble
Goes by Paulie
Famously borne by Paul Cezanne, whose faceted views of Mont Sainte-Victoire opened the door to Cubism.
Name day: June 29 in the Roman calendar of saints (Saint Paul the Apostle).
The story
Paul is the Latin paulus, small, and it belongs to one of history's great letter writers. The apostle did not trade Saul for Paul on the Damascus road, as the legend has it; he carried both names all along, Saul among his own people and Paulus for the wider Roman world, and the book of Acts simply notes that Saul was also called Paul. His letters, seven of them undisputed, did as much as any documents ever written to shape Christianity, and six popes have answered to the name since. English speakers warmed to it slowly, turning to it in numbers only from the seventeenth century on. In America it was a fixture, a top-twenty boys' name from 1900 all the way to 1968, cresting at midcentury before a long, unhurried descent. A name meaning small, written large.
Paul's name family
One shared root links 4 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Latin paulus "small, humble", the Roman cognomen Paulus
The family
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Paul peaked in the 1950s and the 1960s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,576 people · the #6,058 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 125,000 · median age 39
Among people named Paul living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 26 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Paul
People given the name Paul in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Paul deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Paul 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 Paul fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Paul · Korean American baby names · Saint names for babies and confirmation · Names of great artists · Short names
Does Paul fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Paul to your family’s tree →