Paloma
From Latin by way of Spanish, Paloma means dove, the plain bird on any city square. It stays rare in Poland, carried by fewer than 200 women, so meeting one sticks in the memory.
Paloma Pronunciation
Paloma is pronounced pah-LO-mah (/paˈlɔma/).
What Paloma means
Where Paloma comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Paloma comes from Latin, where palumbus named the wood dove, and Spanish carried the word forward until it settled as a given name. In Spanish, paloma still means dove, the ordinary bird you find on any plaza. The Polish gloss is gołębica.
Paloma Picasso, born in 1949, is the name's best-known bearer. Her father, Pablo Picasso, had made the dove a symbol of peace that same year, and the daughter's name matched that image. She later built a career in perfume and jewelry design, so the name traveled well beyond Spain.
The bird has always meant more than itself. Doves appear in scripture and in the birds released at public ceremonies, and Paloma holds onto that association without turning it into something abstract.
On a Polish class register, Paloma reads as visibly Spanish, a small marker of somewhere else. It has no Polish diminutive. The meaning stays near the surface: dove, gołębica.
When Paloma celebrates name day
Paloma appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 19 September.
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 Paloma
1 in 116807 women in Poland is named Paloma. 193 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2285 among female names.
Paloma's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Paloma as a middle name
Paloma is a first name for 193 women in Poland and a middle name for another 100, a 66/34 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 667th, between Mariam (100) and Scarlett (100).
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#665 Layla101
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#666 Mariam100
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#667 Paloma100
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#668 Scarlett100
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#669 Żaklin100