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Paul

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Meaning & History

From the Roman family name Paulus, which signified "small" or "humble" in Latin. Paul was a pivotal leader of the early Christian church. According to Acts in the New Testament, he was a Jewish Roman citizen who embraced Christianity after the resurrected Jesus appeared to him. He subsequently travelled the eastern Mediterranean as a missionary. His original Hebrew name was Saul. Many of the epistles in the New Testament are attributed to him.

Owing to the renown of Saint Paul, the name became widespread among early Christians. It was borne by a number of other early saints and six popes. In England it was relatively uncommon during the Middle Ages but grew more frequent from the 17th century onward. In the United States it ranked among the top 20 names for boys from 1900 to 1968, while in the United Kingdom it enjoyed great popularity from the 1950s through the 1980s. It has also been extensively used in Germany and France and remains popular there, though it is currently declining in the English-speaking world.

A notable bearer was the American Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere (1735-1818), who famously warned of the British army's advance. Distinguished bearers in the art world include the French impressionists Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and the Swiss expressionist Paul Klee (1879-1940). It is also borne by the actor Paul Newman (1925-2008) and the musicians Paul Simon (1941-) and Paul McCartney (1942-). Additionally, this is the name of the legendary American lumberjack Paul Bunyan and the fictional Paul Atreides from Frank Herbert's novel Dune (1965).

Related Names

Variants (Norwegian): Pål
(Danish): Poul
Diminutives (English): Paulie
(Danish): Palle
(Estonian): Paavo
Other Languages & Cultures (Albanian): Pal, Pali, Pavli
(Biblical Latin): Paulus
(Arabic): Boulos, Bulus
(Armenian): Boghos, Poghos
(Slovene): Pavel
(Belarusian): Paviel, Paval
(Biblical Greek): Paulos
(Breton): Paol
(Occitan): Pau
(Catalan): Pol
(Corsican): Paulu
(Croatian): Pavao
(Serbian): Pavle
(Croatian): Pavo
(Esperanto): Paŭlo, Paĉjo
(Icelandic): Páll
(Finnish): Pauli, Paavali, Paavo
(Flemish): Pauwel
(Portuguese): Paulo
(Greek): Pavlos
(Hungarian): Pál
(Irish): Pól
(Italian): Paolo
(Latvian): Pauls, Pāvels, Pāvils
(Lithuanian): Paulius, Povilas
(Maltese): Pawlu
(Maori): Paora
(Polish): Paweł
(Portuguese): Paulinho
(Ukrainian): Pasha
(Sardinian): Pàulu
(Scottish Gaelic): Pàl, Pòl
(Slovak): Pavol
(Spanish): Pablo
(Ukrainian): Pavlo
Surname Descendants (Norwegian): Paulsen
(German): Paul
(Dutch): Paulis, Paulissen, Pauwels
(English): Paulson
(German): Pohl 2
User Submissions pa11ul, pa12ul, paul16

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