Paulla
Feminine form of the masculine name Paul, derived from Latin Paulus, meaning "humble" or "little".
Name Census estimates that about 188 living Americans carry the first name Paulla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Paulla today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Paulla births was 1951 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Paulla. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Paulla is about 65 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Paullas were born before 1971.
People living today
188
~ 1 in 1,823,161 Americans
Peak year
1951
14 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1991 SSA rank
#12,653
Tracked since 1942
Census
Paulla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 318 people with the first name Paulla, which placed it at #28,322 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#28,322
National first-name rank
People counted
318
318 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Paulla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Paulla is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Paulla described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Paulla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.6% · 253
- Black or African American10.7% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 11
- Two or more races3.1% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Paulla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Paulla from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 89 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Paulla by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Paulla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Paulla
The given name Paulla has its origins in the ancient Roman culture, where it was derived from the Latin word "paulus," meaning "small" or "humble." This name gained popularity during the early Christian era, particularly after the biblical figure of Paul the Apostle, whose original name was Saul.
In ancient Roman times, the name Paulla was often used as a feminine form of the male name Paulus. It was a common practice to assign diminutive versions of names to children, and Paulla was one such example. The name carried connotations of humility and modesty, reflecting the virtue of being small or humble in spirit.
Historically, the name Paulla is mentioned in various ancient texts and records. One notable reference is found in the writings of the Roman historian Pliny the Younger, who mentioned a woman named Paulla Arria, known for her stoic virtue and courage during the reign of the Emperor Claudius in the 1st century AD.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Paulla can be traced back to the 2nd century AD, with several inscriptions and epitaphs bearing the name. One famous bearer of the name was Paulla of Rome, a Roman noblewoman and friend of St. Jerome, who lived in the 4th century AD and was known for her piety and charity.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Paulla. One such figure was Paulla Barbieri (1399-1449), an Italian Benedictine nun and mystic who is venerated as a blessed in the Catholic Church. Another was Paulla Bragança (1548-1638), a Portuguese noblewoman and patron of the arts, known for her support of literary and artistic endeavors.
In the realm of literature, Paulla Posseli (1624-1689) was a Swedish writer and poet who gained recognition for her religious and occasional poems. More recently, Paulla Ebron (1896-1981) was an American artist and painter known for her vibrant depictions of African American life and culture.
It is worth noting that the name Paulla, while rooted in ancient Roman origins, has also been adapted and adopted across various cultures and languages, sometimes with slight variations in spelling or pronunciation, reflecting the diverse influences and interpretations of this name over time.
People
Paulla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Paulla as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Paulla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Paulla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 188 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Paulla going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,823,161 US residents.
Is Paulla a common name?
We classify Paulla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 262 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Paulla most popular?
The single biggest year for Paulla was 1951, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Paulla is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Paulla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 318 people with the name Paulla, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,322 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Paulla in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Paulla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Paulla leans strongly female. 316 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Paulla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Paulla is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Paulla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Paulla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.6% (253 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Paulla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Paulla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Paulla in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Paulla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Paulla in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Paulla can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Paulla?
Want to know how many people share the name Paulla? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.