RussianLatin rootApostolic
Meaning: small, humble — a Roman nickname that outlived Rome.
Pavel
| Origin | Russian form of Paul, from Latin Paulus through Greek Paulos and Church Slavonic |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Small or humble. Paulus was a plain Roman cognomen meaning "little", of the same unglamorous type as Rufus (red-haired) or Crassus (thick) |
| Pronunciation | PAH-vyel, stress on the first syllable, the second clipped almost to "-vl" |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and rare in America; everyday in Russia and just as native in Czech |
| Variants | Paul, Paulus, Paolo, Pablo, Paweł, Pál, Pavle, Pau |
| Nicknames | Pasha, Pavlik, Pavlusha |
| Feast day | 12 July, Saints Peter and Paul, in the Russian Orthodox calendar |
History & meaning
Roman third names were rarely flattering. Paulus simply meant little, and it sat in the register beside bynames for red hair, big ears and thick heads. The man who made it a Christian name was born Saul of Tarsus and also held Roman citizenship, which meant he already had a Latin name to hand; Acts switches to Paulos halfway through his first missionary journey and never explains why. Greek-speaking congregations took it as it stood, and when Cyril and Methodius built a liturgical language for the Slavs in the ninth century, Paulos came across into Church Slavonic as Pavel.
It has been ordinary ever since, and it is one of very few names in this family that is equally the standard form in Russian and in Czech — Prague has as many Pavels as Moscow. Ukrainian, though, does something different with it. There the apostle is Pavlo, following the Ukrainian habit of ending men's names in -o: Pavlo, Dmytro, Petro, Danylo. Pavlo is the Ukrainian name in its own right, not a variant of Pavel, and no Ukrainian would describe it as one.
Why parents choose it
Pavel gets you the apostle without the plainness of Paul, which spent most of the last century as one of the most-used names in the English-speaking world and now sounds like a father rather than a son. The stress on the front makes it brisk, and Pasha is a friendly thing to be called at home.
Middle names for Pavel
A front-stressed two-syllable name leaves room for something with a longer stride: Pavel Augustus, Pavel Nikolai, Pavel Sebastian, Pavel Emmanuel. The middle names guide covers pairing rules in detail.
Famous Pavels
Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow textile merchant, spent forty years buying Russian painting and handed the whole collection to the city in 1892; the Tretyakov Gallery is still where it lives. Pavel Popovich flew Vostok 4 in 1962 as one of the first cosmonauts, and Pavel Datsyuk won two Stanley Cups in Detroit with the best hands of his generation.
Consider instead
Paul is the original in English and completely unproblematic anywhere. Pablo is the same name in Spanish with far more colour to it. Peter is the apostle Paul is always paired with, and shares his feast day.