Pavel

Pavel is the Russian cousin of a name Polish families have used for centuries: Paweł. Both came to us through Greek, where the apostle wrote his letters as Παῦλος. That word carried a plain sense, small and humble, or in Polish simply mały.

There is a story hidden in the smallness. The apostle first went by Saul, then took up Paul, trading a proud, king-sized name for the lesser one. And so a word that means little became the banner of a man read aloud in churches across the world. Small can be a form of defiance.

In Poland the form settled as Paweł, and the imieniny land on 29 June, the day shared with Peter. A boy called Pavel abroad and Paweł on the class register at home answers to the same root. The meaning stays modest: mały.