Pamelyn
A feminine name blending "Pamela" with Evelyn, meaning "all honey" and "life".
Name Census estimates that about 100 living Americans carry the first name Pamelyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Pamelyn today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pamelyn births was 1972 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pamelyn. 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.
People living today
100
~ 1 in 3,427,543 Americans
Peak year
1972
13 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1979 SSA rank
#11,403
Tracked since 1951
Census
Pamelyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 156 people with the first name Pamelyn, which placed it at #44,397 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
#44,397
National first-name rank
People counted
156
156 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Pamelyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pamelyn is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.4%). 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 Pamelyn 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 Pamelyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.2% · 97
- Black or African American23.7% · 37
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 10
- Two or more races6.4% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1
Popularity
Pamelyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pamelyn from the 1950s through to the 1970s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 63 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Pamelyn 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 Pamelyn 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 Pamelyn
The given name Pamelyn is a variant spelling of the English name Pamela, which ultimately derives from the Greek name Παμέλα (Pamela). This Greek name is thought to be a compound word formed from the elements παν (pan) meaning "all" and μέλι (meli) meaning "honey". As such, the name Pamelyn could be interpreted as meaning "all honey" or "totally sweet".
The name Pamela has its roots in ancient Greek mythology and literature. In the pastoral romance work Daphnis and Chloe written by the 2nd century AD Greek novelist Longus, one of the principal characters is a young woman named Παμέλα (Pamela). This may have been the first known use of the name in literature, though its origins likely extend back further into antiquity.
One of the earliest recorded real-life instances of the Pamela name dates to around the 16th century in England. Pamela Naunton was an English courtier born around 1556 who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. She never married and died sometime before 1591.
In the 18th century, the name received a boost in popularity after the publication of Samuel Richardson's 1740 novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. The titular heroine's name choice inspired many parents to use it for their daughters.
Some other notable individuals named Pamelyn or the variant Pamela throughout history include:
Pamela Colman Smith (1878-1951), British artist best known for illustrating the Rider-Waite tarot deck.
Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman (1920-1997), English socialite and writer who was married to Winston Churchill's son and later a U.S. diplomat.
Pamela Franklin (born 1950), English actress who starred in films like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Legend of Hell House.
Pamelyn Ferdin (born 1959), American former child actress known for voicing Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts specials and films.
Pamela Tiffin (1942-2023), American model and actress who starred in films like State Fair and Harper.
People
Pamelyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pamelyn 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
Pamelyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pamelyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 100 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pamelyn 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 3,427,543 US residents.
Is Pamelyn a common name?
We classify Pamelyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 118 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pamelyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Pamelyn was 1972, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pamelyn is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Pamelyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 156 people with the name Pamelyn, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,397 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 Pamelyn 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 Pamelyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Pamelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 156 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Pamelyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pamelyn is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.4%). 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 Pamelyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Pamelyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.2% (97 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 Pamelyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Pamelyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Pamelyn 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 Pamelyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Pamelyn 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 Pamelyn 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 have Pamelyn as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.