Pamela
Girl namePamela has been given to 596,462 babies in the U.S. since 1895. It peaked in 1954.
Meaning & origin /ˈpæmələ/
Invented by Sir Philip Sidney for his pastoral poem The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (c 1593). Seemingly created from scratch; some imagine an analysis as Ancient Greek πᾶς (pâs, “all”) + μέλι (méli, “honey”) but there is no evidence that this was intended.
Origin: coinages
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Popularity over time births per year, 1880–2025
Total babies
596,462
Peak year
1954 (27,398 babies)
Rank in 2025
Below top 1000
First recorded
1895
10-year trend
▼ -51%
Gender split
100% girls / 0% boys
Famous people named Pamela
Pamela Anderson
Canadian actress and model (born 1967)
Pam Grier
American actress (born 1949)
Pam Bondi
American attorney and politician (born 1965)
Pamela Melroy
American astronaut
Notability data from Wikidata (CC0).
Names with a similar vibe
Same primary gender, peaked around the same years, and roughly as common as Pamela.
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