Paula
From Latin, carrying the sense of "small, humble". Around 15,700 Polish women hold it, but it's fading fast: just 22 newborn girls last year, and the name is given to girls only.
Paula Pronunciation
Paula is pronounced pah-OO-lah (/paˈula/).
What Paula means
Where Paula comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Paula comes from Latin, the feminine of Paulus, an old Roman family name that meant small or humble. The word began as a plain description of size and later settled into a name carried across the empire.
One early bearer gave the name its shape. Paula of Rome, born in 347, was a wealthy widow who gave away her fortune, followed Jerome to Bethlehem, and helped him with his work on the Latin Bible. She is remembered each year on 26 January, still the imieniny for Paula in Polish calendars.
In Poland the name travels in several forms. Pola is the warm short form, while Palina and Paulina stand beside it as fuller variants. A teacher reading a class register might find a Paula and a Paulina in the same row, close in sound, separate in the paperwork.
Small, humble was never a promise. It was the sense of an old adjective that hardened into a name. Mała, skromna, the Polish gloss says, and the Latin root still sits under every Paula.
When Paula celebrates name day
Paula appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 26 January.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Paula
1 in 1436 women in Poland is named Paula. 15,701 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #300 among female names.
Paula's popularity over time
22 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #495 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #300 name among living women, even as it slips to #495 among newborns.
Where parents choose Paula
Paula is most popular in Opole, 59% above the national average (13 girls born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+40%) and Podlaskie (+37%). It is least common in Lesser Poland and Holy Cross, 53% and 39% below average respectively.
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Opole
+59%1 in 3,546 babies
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West Pomeranian
+40%1 in 4,020 babies
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Podlaskie
+37%1 in 4,112 babies
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Lesser Poland
−53%1 in 11,943 babies
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Holy Cross
−39%1 in 9,239 babies
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Masovian
−35%1 in 8,641 babies
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Opole+59% 13 born1 in 3,546 babies+59%
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West Pomeranian+40% 21 born1 in 4,020 babies+40%
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Podlaskie+37% 16 born1 in 4,112 babies+37%
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Lubusz+36% 12 born1 in 4,138 babies+36%
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Greater Poland+36% 52 born1 in 4,139 babies+36%
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Lower Silesian+33% 37 born1 in 4,247 babies+33%
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Warmian-Masurian+33% 17 born1 in 4,223 babies+33%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+18% 23 born1 in 4,756 babies+18%
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Pomeranian+11% 29 born1 in 5,080 babies+11%
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Silesian+11% 45 born1 in 5,057 babies+11%
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Lublin−7% 17 born1 in 6,040 babies−7%
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Subcarpathian−11% 19 born1 in 6,346 babies−11%
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Łódź−25% 17 born1 in 7,454 babies−25%
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Masovian−35% 41 born1 in 8,641 babies−35%
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Holy Cross−39% 6 born1 in 9,239 babies−39%
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Lesser Poland−53% 19 born1 in 11,943 babies−53%
Paula as a middle name
Paula is a first name for 15,701 women in Poland and a middle name for another 5,627, a 74/26 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 141st, between Julita (5,638) and Eleonora (5,540).
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#139 Wacława5,683
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#140 Julita5,638
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#141 Paula5,627
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#142 Eleonora5,540
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#143 Iga5,232