Pauline
The French form of the Latin *Paulus*, carrying the old sense of "small" and modest in scale. In Poland this exact spelling stays rare: fewer than 300 women use it, while Paulina does the everyday work.
Pauline Pronunciation
Pauline is pronounced pah-oo-LEE-ne (/pauˈlinɛ/).
What Pauline means
Where Pauline comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Pauline traces back to the Latin Paulus, an old Roman name that meant simply "small." It is the same Paulus that named the apostle Paul. From it grew the feminine Paulina and, later, the French Pauline that lent the name much of its coloring, which still clings after French speakers carried it through salons and parish records.
The sense of "small" was never meant as a slight. In Latin it marked modesty, the humble scale a person claimed against the grandeur of Rome. That older reading, mała and skromna, small and humble, settled onto the name across centuries rather than arriving with it.
In Poland the name lives through its relatives. Paulina appears on a class register; Paulinka is what a grandmother might call the same girl; Pola trims it down for a friend. Each form keeps the Latin root intact.
Pola is the shortest form, and Paulus sits under it still.
How many people are named Pauline
1 in 81386 women in Poland is named Pauline. 277 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1830 among female names.
Pauline's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Pauline as a middle name
Pauline is a first name for 277 women in Poland and a middle name for another 122, a 69/31 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 596th, between Lora (122) and Hieronima (121).
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#594 Kumari122
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#595 Lora122
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#596 Pauline122
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#597 Hieronima121
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#598 Laila120