Name Trends

See the popularity of first names over time in the USA

How popular is “Paula” in the USA?

Number of people named “Paula” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Paula” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Paula” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Paula” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Paula” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Paula” by birth year

This chart shows how “Paula” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 9 0.000044669 9 100%
1881 9 0.000046708 9 100%
1882 6 0.000027084 6 100%
1883 19 0.000087579 19 100%
1884 12 0.000049289 12 100%
1885 16 0.00006643 16 100%
1886 21 0.000082251 21 100%
1887 26 0.000105096 26 100%
1888 27 0.000090158 27 100%
1889 33 0.000114208 33 100%
1890 35 0.000116124 35 100%
1891 44 0.000153485 44 100%
1892 40 0.000119627 40 100%
1893 47 0.000144516 47 100%
1894 34 0.000100387 34 100%
1895 37 0.000105407 37 100%
1896 47 0.000131474 47 100%
1897 45 0.000129699 45 100%
1898 55 0.000144185 55 100%
1899 40 0.000117913 40 100%
1900 47 0.000104385 47 100%
1901 50 0.000144587 50 100%
1902 41 0.000106016 41 100%
1903 57 0.000149528 57 100%
1904 79 0.000195794 79 100%
1905 68 0.000160407 68 100%
1906 89 0.000207725 89 100%
1907 76 0.000163304 76 100%
1908 83 0.000169856 83 100%
1909 76 0.000148663 76 100%
1910 89 0.000150666 89 100%
1911 105 0.000162973 105 100%
1912 164 0.000165981 164 100%
1913 150 0.000131913 150 100%
1914 184 0.000129912 184 100%
1915 228 0.000124425 228 100%
1916 289 0.000149399 289 100%
1917 308 0.000153482 303 5 97%
1918 265 0.000122057 265 100%
1919 245 0.0001161 245 100%
1920 343 0.000151593 343 100%
1921 326 0.000139644 326 100%
1922 305 0.000133237 305 100%
1923 378 0.000164171 378 100%
1924 418 0.000175512 418 100%
1925 464 0.00019886 464 100%
1926 546 0.000237815 541 5 98%
1927 602 0.000259555 602 100%
1928 558 0.0002468 558 100%
1929 624 0.000284651 619 5 98%
1930 623 0.000280216 614 9 97%
1931 592 0.000281317 585 7 98%
1932 658 0.000311658 658 100%
1933 611 0.000305584 611 100%
1934 770 0.00037076 759 11 97%
1935 774 0.000370353 774 100%
1936 988 0.000475554 982 6 99%
1937 1212 0.000568835 1212 100%
1938 1326 0.000599302 1318 8 99%
1939 1353 0.000614039 1348 5 99%
1940 1381 0.000599735 1372 9 99%
1941 1540 0.000632074 1540 100%
1942 1983 0.00072589 1974 9 99%
1943 3059 0.001083768 3042 17 99%
1944 3329 0.00123751 3315 14 99%
1945 3809 0.001435782 3798 11 99%
1946 4737 0.001482487 4725 12 99%
1947 6110 0.001696128 6102 8 100%
1948 6610 0.001914545 6600 10 100%
1949 6595 0.001892518 6577 18 99%
1950 6640 0.001895324 6631 9 100%
1951 7299 0.001981411 7291 8 100%
1952 8583 0.002259871 8566 17 100%
1953 9572 0.002483883 9557 15 100%
1954 9698 0.00243625 9686 12 100%
1955 9598 0.002390488 9585 13 100%
1956 8947 0.002170002 8925 22 100%
1957 8559 0.002036818 8544 15 100%
1958 8052 0.001947796 8025 27 99%
1959 8080 0.001943246 8059 21 99%
1960 8081 0.001945441 8065 16 100%
1961 7765 0.001874562 7746 19 100%
1962 7203 0.001784966 7193 10 100%
1963 10178 0.002571371 10151 27 99%
1964 9518 0.002448294 9501 17 100%
1965 7933 0.002188143 7914 19 100%
1966 7870 0.002264321 7857 13 100%
1967 7715 0.002272528 7692 23 99%
1968 7661 0.002267633 7638 23 99%
1969 6776 0.001949747 6754 22 99%
1970 6077 0.001685007 6055 22 99%
1971 5393 0.001571224 5378 15 99%
1972 4273 0.001359532 4260 13 99%
1973 3523 0.00116776 3504 19 99%
1974 3079 0.001012829 3061 18 99%
1975 2669 0.000883952 2652 17 99%
1976 2258 0.000744158 2251 7 99%
1977 2055 0.00064694 2043 12 99%
1978 1837 0.000578789 1827 10 99%
1979 1704 0.000512173 1694 10 99%
1980 1606 0.00046625 1598 8 99%
1981 1493 0.000431581 1481 12 98%
1982 1346 0.000383699 1328 18 97%
1983 1174 0.000338979 1160 14 98%
1984 1113 0.000319025 1102 11 98%
1985 1025 0.000287186 1015 10 98%
1986 892 0.000250768 881 11 98%
1987 912 0.000252939 903 9 98%
1988 825 0.000223272 811 14 97%
1989 810 0.000210693 794 16 96%
1990 950 0.000240356 940 10 98%
1991 856 0.000219754 849 7 98%
1992 781 0.000203318 776 5 99%
1993 643 0.000170544 630 13 96%
1994 631 0.000169731 623 8 97%
1995 561 0.000153188 553 8 97%
1996 552 0.000151349 552 100%
1997 504 0.000139006 504 100%
1998 462 0.000125605 457 5 98%
1999 446 0.000120741 446 100%
2000 462 0.000122225 454 8 97%
2001 420 0.000112198 420 100%
2002 420 0.000112351 415 5 98%
2003 356 0.000093627 356 100%
2004 425 0.00011123 419 6 97%
2005 424 0.000110278 416 8 96%
2006 431 0.000108943 431 100%
2007 460 0.000115067 455 5 98%
2008 453 0.000115248 448 5 98%
2009 368 0.000096331 362 6 97%
2010 332 0.000089833 332 100%
2011 325 0.000088851 325 100%
2012 385 0.000105267 385 100%
2013 307 0.00008421 307 100%
2014 267 0.000072038 267 100%
2015 319 0.000086195 310 9 94%
2016 348 0.000094857 348 100%
2017 324 0.000090599 319 5 97%
2018 344 0.000097841 344 100%
2019 373 0.000107464 373 100%
2020 336 0.000100581 331 5 97%
2021 338 0.000099765 338 100%
2022 355 0.000104932 349 6 97%
2023 407 0.000122916 401 6 97%
2024 374 0.000112363 374 100%

Explore other names

These names are alphabetically near to Paula:

  1. Patzy
  2. Pau
  3. Paublita
  4. Paublo
  5. Paul
  6. Paula (this page)
  7. Paulann
  8. Paulanne
  9. Paulanthony
  10. Paule
  11. Paulean