Paulo
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "humble" or "small".
Name Census estimates that about 4,391 living Americans carry the first name Paulo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Paulo today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Paulo births was 2006 (122 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Paulo. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Paulo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 78,058 Americans
Peak year
2006
122 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,601
Tracked since 1913
Census
Paulo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,112 people with the first name Paulo, which placed it at #2,310 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
#2,310
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,112 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Paulo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Paulo is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (41.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.9%). 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 Paulo 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 Paulo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.3% · 4,928
- Hispanic or Latino41.0% · 4,555
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.9% · 882
- Black or African American4.5% · 500
- Two or more races2.0% · 226
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 21
Popularity
Paulo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Paulo from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 921 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Paulo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Paulo 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 Paulo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Paulos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Texas, California, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Paulo, while North Carolina, Hawaii, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 245 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Paulo
The name Paulo has its origins in the Latin name Paulus, which was a Roman family name derived from the word "paullus," meaning "small" or "humble." This name gained significant prominence through St. Paul the Apostle, one of the most influential figures in early Christianity.
In the New Testament, St. Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, played a pivotal role in the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. His epistles, which make up a substantial portion of the New Testament, were instrumental in shaping early Christian theology and doctrine.
The name Paulo gained widespread popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, where it was often rendered as Paolo, Pablo, and Paulo, respectively. It was widely adopted by Christian families as a testament to their faith and admiration for St. Paul.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Paulo can be found in the 13th century, when it was borne by Paulo da Viterbo, an Italian Augustinian friar and theologian who lived from 1220 to 1284. Another notable figure bearing this name was Paulo Veneziano, an Italian painter active in the 14th century, renowned for his religious artworks.
In the 15th century, Paulo Toscanelli, an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and cosmographer, gained recognition for his contributions to cartography and his correspondence with Christopher Columbus regarding the possibility of reaching Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean.
During the Renaissance period, the name Paulo was associated with several prominent figures, including Paulo Giovio (1483-1552), an Italian historian and biographer, and Paulo Veronese (1528-1588), a renowned Venetian painter known for his large-scale religious and mythological works.
In the 16th century, the name gained further prominence with the birth of Paulo Sarpi (1552-1623), a Venetian historian, philosopher, and theologian who played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation and the development of the modern concept of the separation of church and state.
Other notable figures bearing the name Paulo include Paulo Coelho (born 1947), a Brazilian novelist best known for his inspirational work "The Alchemist," and Paulo Freire (1921-1997), a Brazilian educator and philosopher whose work on critical pedagogy had a profound impact on educational theory and practice.
People
Paulo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Paulo 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
Paulo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Paulo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,391 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Paulo 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 78,058 US residents.
Is Paulo a common name?
We classify Paulo as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,921 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Paulo most popular?
The single biggest year for Paulo was 2006, when 122 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Paulo is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Paulo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,112 people with the name Paulo, or 3.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,310 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 Paulo 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 Paulo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Paulo appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,111 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Paulo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Paulo is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (41.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.9%). 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 Paulo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Paulo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (4,928 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 Paulo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Paulo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Paulo in the SSA data are male. 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 Paulo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Paulo 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 Paulo 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 Paulo?
Find out how many people have the name Paulo on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.