Paulo

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Paul in US United States, FR France, GB United Kingdom and 9 more, Pablo in AR Argentina, ES Spain, MX Mexico and 6 more, Павел in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, TR Türkiye and Paweł in PL Poland.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Paulo is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name1.5M records spelled Paulo12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Philippines, Ecuador

  Languages: English, Dutch, Western Frisian

  Also written Paul-O, Päulö, Pauló, Päülö, Paülo

• French given name81K records spelled Paulo22 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, Belgium, United States

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Paùlo, Paul'O, Paulõ, Päulo, Päulõ

• German given name20K records spelled Paulo3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, Switzerland

  Also written Paŭlo

• a separate given name17K records spelled Paulo4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, United Kingdom, India

  Also written Paǔlo, Paulō, Paŭlo

• Indonesian given name7.4K records spelled Paulo3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Tanzania

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Pauló

• Croatian given name5.0K records spelled Paulo11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, United States, Tanzania, Bulgaria

  Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian

  Also written Пауло, Paullo, Păulo

78 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Paulo is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Italian, forma arcaica de Paolo

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In French, Portuguese form of Paul; 'small'.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In German, Patronym zu Paulus. 122 Träger.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

• In Latin, dative/ablative singular of Paulus

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Hawaiian, Paul (biblical character)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

EC INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) — 113 years between 1908–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Paulo Freireb. 1921BRBrazilian educator and philosopher (1921–1997)
• Paulo Mendes da Rochab. 1928BRBrazilian architect (1928–2021)
• Pablo Milanésb. 1943CUnot in their usual nameCuban musician (1943–2022)
• Paulo Coelhob. 1947BRBrazilian lyricist and novelist (born 1947)
• Paulo Bentob. 1969PTPortuguese football manager and former footballer
• Paulo Sousab. 1970PTPortuguese footballer
• Paulo Ferreirab. 1979PTPortuguese footballer (born 1979)
• Juan Brancob. 1989ESnot in their usual nameFrench-Spanish lawyer, writer and political activist (born 1989)
• Paulo Dybalab. 1993ARArgentine association football player (born 1993)
• Paulo Londrab. 1998ARArgentinian rapper and singer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 899 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Paulo?

We estimate roughly 3.9 million people bear Paulo (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Paulo have the most bearers?

Paulo is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled павел.

Where is Paulo most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Paulo is densest in the Czechia — about 1 in 27 people — even though Russia holds more of our records for it.

How common is Paulo compared with other names?

In Russia, Paulo is the 34th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Paulo a male or female name?

Paulo is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Paulo mean?

Recorded meaning: small