The name Paul is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "small".

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At Paul's Beatles-inspired height in the 1970s, there were nearly 100 baby girls named Paul in the US each year. Today, there are baby girls named Paula, Paulie, and Paulette, but no Pauls.

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Paul

Latin

The name Paul peaked for girls at #637 in 1928. Paul is also used for boys, ranking #262 in 2025.

The name Paul is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "small".

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Paul is an ancient <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">name for boys</a> -- popular in Roman and medieval times -- that's not very fashionable now, which can work in its favor, scarcity balancing simplicity. 
To the thousands of girls who screamed the name of their favorite Beatle in the 1960s, the boys' name Paul had a thrillingly unique image, but to the rest of the world, then and now, it's a name that's so simple and yet so widely diffuse that it could belong to almost anyone.
 Paul also has a rich religious background: Saint Paul (originally called Saul but baptized Paul after his conversion) was a cofounder with Peter of the Christian church, and there have been six Pope Pauls.
 Paul also boasts a wide range of name-sharing heroes, from Revere to Newman, Cezanne to McCartney. Some creative foreign versions are Pablo (Spanish), Paolo (Itlaian), Pavel (Russian) and Paavo (Finnish).
 Paul's single syllable also make it one of the most popular traditional <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/673/middle-names">middle names</a>.

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The name Paul is currently ranked #262 in U.S. births. and peaked for boys at #12 in 1930. The name is most popular in PAUL, PAUL, and PAUL. Paul is occasionally used for girls in 2006.

Year	US rank	Births	Per million
2014	—	0	0
2015	—	0	0
2016	—	0	0
2017	—	0	0
2018	—	0	0
2019	—	0	0
2020	—	0	0
2021	—	0	0
2022	—	0	0
2023	—	0	0
2024	—	0	0
2025	—	0	0

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