Paloma
Paloma was given to 343 girls in 2025, #793 among girls’ names; 10,765 Americans have been recorded with it since 1921 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,600 Americans named Paloma and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 10 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Paloma by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Paloma mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Paloma is “a female given name.”
From Spanish Paloma.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Paloma?
#793 among girls’ names, 2025
Paloma rose from #903 in 2015 to #793 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.17 to 0.21 per 1,000.
411 babies in 2009, the peak
Paloma peaked in 2009, when 411 girls were given it, #706 among girls’ names. The 343 births of 2025 are 83% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 343 | #793 | 0.21 |
| 2024 | 268 | #969 | 0.17 |
| 2023 | 266 | #972 | 0.17 |
| 2022 | 281 | #957 | 0.17 |
| 2021 | 309 | #883 | 0.19 |
| 2020 | 274 | #940 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 290 | #915 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 298 | #904 | 0.18 |
| 2017 | 303 | #892 | 0.18 |
| 2016 | 290 | #946 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 306 | #903 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 314 | #871 | 0.18 |
| 2013 | 359 | #759 | 0.20 |
| 2012 | 346 | #788 | 0.20 |
| 2011 | 317 | #834 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 407 | #703 | 0.23 |
| 2009 | 411 | #706 | 0.22 |
| 2008 | 377 | #779 | 0.20 |
| 2007 | 329 | #857 | 0.17 |
| 2006 | 317 | #847 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 303 | #838 | 0.16 |
| 2004 | 289 | #853 | 0.16 |
| 2003 | 281 | #861 | 0.15 |
| 2002 | 241 | #932 | 0.13 |
| 2001 | 272 | #841 | 0.15 |
| 2000 | 245 | #897 | 0.13 |
| 1999 | 203 | #1,008 | 0.11 |
| 1998 | 207 | #978 | 0.12 |
| 1997 | 217 | #920 | 0.12 |
| 1996 | 201 | #959 | 0.11 |
| 1995 | 184 | #1,007 | 0.10 |
| 1994 | 194 | #959 | 0.11 |
| 1993 | 188 | #986 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 186 | #1,011 | 0.10 |
| 1991 | 159 | #1,116 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 138 | #1,217 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 118 | #1,322 | 0.06 |
| 1988 | 89 | #1,516 | 0.05 |
| 1987 | 71 | #1,715 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 91 | #1,416 | 0.05 |
| 1985 | 60 | #1,875 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 84 | #1,395 | 0.05 |
| 1983 | 55 | #1,900 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 58 | #1,865 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 42 | #2,363 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 31 | #2,925 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 30 | #2,911 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 25 | #3,170 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 24 | #3,236 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 16 | #4,100 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,302 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 10 | #5,645 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,487 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,798 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,319 | under 0.01 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,685 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,615 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,961 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Paloma a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Paloma has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 58 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Paloma: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Paloma, and how old are they?
10,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,765 Americans ever recorded as Paloma. The median Paloma alive today is 17 years old; half are between 10 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 10,303 people named Paloma (10,262 women and girls, 41 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,983 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 158 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,870 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,710 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,880 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Paloma born?
The states with the most babies named Paloma are California, Texas and Florida, with 53% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 78 | #430 | 2.3× |
| Texas | 58 | #551 | 1.9× |
| Florida | 25 | #687 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 23 | #466 | 1.1× |
| Arizona | 14 | #509 | 1.8× |
| Washington | 14 | #507 | 0.9× |
| New York | 13 | #1,136 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #1,087 | 0.2× |
| Colorado | 7 | #772 | 1.0× |
| Oregon | 7 | #529 | 0.8× |
Where Paloma is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Paloma is most over-represented in California: since 1921 it was given 2.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Paloma with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 14,339 babies since 1880, Paloma is the most given (75% of them). In 2025 it was given to 343 of their 348 babies (99%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Paloma
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Paloma and names like it
- Compare Paloma and PalmaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sPaloma peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Paloma since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Paloma.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Paloma alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with PMost given first.