Paola
Paola was given to 178 girls in 2025, #1,260 among girls’ names; 24,644 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 24,300 Americans named Paola and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 17 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Paola by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Paola mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Paola is “a female given name from Italian.”
Borrowed from Italian Paola.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Paola?
#1,260 among girls’ names, 2025
Paola fell from #738 in 2015 to #1,260 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.21 to 0.11 per 1,000.
1,089 babies in 2006, the peak
Paola peaked in 2006, when 1,089 girls were given it, #302 among girls’ names. The 178 births of 2025 are 16% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 178 | #1,260 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 230 | #1,081 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 231 | #1,074 | 0.14 |
| 2022 | 269 | #985 | 0.16 |
| 2021 | 270 | #964 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 268 | #956 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 283 | #935 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 275 | #963 | 0.16 |
| 2017 | 331 | #824 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 338 | #843 | 0.19 |
Every recorded year (72)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 383 | #738 | 0.21 |
| 2014 | 418 | #680 | 0.23 |
| 2013 | 424 | #672 | 0.24 |
| 2012 | 507 | #580 | 0.29 |
| 2011 | 620 | #481 | 0.35 |
| 2010 | 680 | #454 | 0.38 |
| 2009 | 853 | #382 | 0.46 |
| 2008 | 954 | #350 | 0.50 |
| 2007 | 1,021 | #328 | 0.53 |
| 2006 | 1,089 | #302 | 0.57 |
| 2005 | 1,041 | #309 | 0.56 |
| 2004 | 936 | #342 | 0.51 |
| 2003 | 952 | #329 | 0.52 |
| 2002 | 1,000 | #310 | 0.56 |
| 2001 | 1,040 | #307 | 0.58 |
| 2000 | 991 | #320 | 0.55 |
| 1999 | 1,027 | #301 | 0.58 |
| 1998 | 812 | #354 | 0.46 |
| 1997 | 656 | #398 | 0.38 |
| 1996 | 701 | #379 | 0.40 |
| 1995 | 921 | #302 | 0.52 |
| 1994 | 747 | #353 | 0.42 |
| 1993 | 402 | #585 | 0.22 |
| 1992 | 500 | #490 | 0.27 |
| 1991 | 285 | #730 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 326 | #664 | 0.17 |
| 1989 | 256 | #763 | 0.14 |
| 1988 | 210 | #856 | 0.12 |
| 1987 | 193 | #880 | 0.11 |
| 1986 | 187 | #885 | 0.11 |
| 1985 | 180 | #891 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 160 | #928 | 0.10 |
| 1983 | 163 | #917 | 0.10 |
| 1982 | 102 | #1,266 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 123 | #1,127 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 83 | #1,469 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 99 | #1,287 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 101 | #1,238 | 0.07 |
| 1977 | 81 | #1,398 | 0.05 |
| 1976 | 61 | #1,630 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 63 | #1,583 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 44 | #1,952 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 37 | #2,160 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 44 | #1,914 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 53 | #1,722 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 36 | #2,227 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 35 | #2,164 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 23 | #2,690 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 35 | #2,000 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 19 | #2,915 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 26 | #2,390 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 18 | #3,069 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 20 | #2,838 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 16 | #3,256 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,742 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 12 | #3,861 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,924 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 15 | #3,193 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,480 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,303 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,393 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,898 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Paola a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Paola has been given almost only to girls: 148 boys in 72 years of records.
Girls and boys named Paola: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Paola, and how old are they?
24,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 24,644 Americans ever recorded as Paola. The median Paola alive today is 23 years old; half are between 17 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 40,331 people named Paola (40,165 women and girls, 166 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 22,976 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 103 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 787 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5,420 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,870 |
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 Paola born?
The states with the most babies named Paola are Texas, California and Florida, with 75% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 39 | #775 | 2.2× |
| California | 34 | #875 | 2.3× |
| Florida | 31 | #580 | 1.3× |
| New York | 12 | #1,218 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,096 | 1.1× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,178 | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,619 | 0.5× |
| Kentucky | 5 | #840 | 0.0× |
Where Paola is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Paola is most over-represented in California: since 1950 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 Paola 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 306,868 babies since 1880, Paola is the second most given (8.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 178 of their 496 babies (36%), again the second 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 Paola
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 Paola and names like it
- Compare Paola and PaulaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sPaola peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Paola since 1910.
- Italian namesWiktionary’s origin for Paola: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Paola.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Paola alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with PMost given first.