girl's name
Paloma
pa-LOH-ma
- Origin Spanish
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 19,888
the United States
#793
2025 births
Paloma is a girl's name from the Spanish word for a dove. It ranks 198th in France, which is its highest position in any market, even though the United States holds the larger share of its 19,557 recorded births.
- Paloma is a name of Spanish origin.
- Peaked in 2009, when 411 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 9,666 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1921.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Paloma over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1920s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 17 |
| 1960s | 5 |
| 1970s | 131 |
| 1980s | 699 |
| 1990s | 1,877 |
| 2000s | 3,065 |
| 2010s | 3,230 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,741 |
What Paloma means
Paloma means dove. It is the ordinary Spanish noun, used unchanged as a name, so it carries the bird's associations of peace and gentleness directly rather than by allusion.
Where Paloma comes from
Paloma is the Spanish palomo, a dove or pigeon, from the Latin palumbus, a wood pigeon. Spanish naming has a long habit of taking words for the natural world directly as names — Alba, Estrella, Azucena — and Paloma belongs to that pattern rather than to any saint's calendar. The dove's religious weight in Spanish Catholicism, as the form the Holy Spirit takes, gave the word a second life it would not have had as a bird name alone. Picasso named his daughter Paloma in 1949, the year he drew the dove that became the emblem of the World Peace Congress.
Paloma in use
Paloma ranks 198th in France on 295 births, its highest position in any market, and also charts in England and Wales at 544th and the United States at 793rd. It peaked in the United States in 2009, when 411 babies were registered, and is stable in our data across 19,888 lifetime births. It does not chart in Ireland, Scotland or Northern Ireland at all, so its reach is Continental and American rather than British.
How popular is Paloma?
In 2025, Paloma was given to 343 babies in the United States, ranking #793 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Paloma is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Paloma
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Paloma also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Paloma over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Paloma
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Sibling names for Paloma
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Paloma — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Paloma
What does the name Paloma mean?
Dove — it is the ordinary Spanish word, used unchanged as a name.
Is Paloma a Spanish name?
Yes, though in our data it ranks highest in France, at 198th.
Is Paloma a religious name?
Not by origin, but the dove's role as the form of the Holy Spirit gave the word standing it would not have had as a bird name alone.
How popular is Paloma?
198th in France, 544th in England and Wales and 793rd in the United States.
Is Paloma a girl's or a boy's name?
Paloma is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Paloma?
Paloma has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Paloma?
Paloma is usually shortened to Loma.
Is Paloma a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Paloma currently ranks #198 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.