A male name. Latin paulus ‘small’, the name of Saul of Tarsus after his conversion. Paul occurs in England before the Norman Conquest only as a monk’s name. St Paul was not an object of particular devotion in the Middle Ages; of 326 English churches dedicated to him, 283 are double dedications to SS Peter and Paul, and of the 43 remaining ones, some at least were originally to the Celtic St Pol or to St Paulinus. I have found the christian name Paul recorded only 3 times in the 13th C (probably the same man in each case), and there can be no doubt that it was a very rare name in the Middle Ages. C. W. Bardsley, Dictionary of English and WelshSurnames (pub. 1901), it is true, says that it was one of the favourite names in the 13th C, but though he derived from it many surnames (e.g. Paul, Pawl, Pawle, Paulin, Pawley, Paulet, Powell, Pollit) it is significant that he does not give a single example of it as a christian name and he was certainly wrong about the origin of most of these names. It was not until the 17th C that Paul had a certain degree of popularity, and even so it never equalled that of many other Biblical names. It has always been commoner in Spain (Pablo) and Italy (Paolo) and Russia (Pavel) than in England, France, or Germany.

Paul Curia Regis Rolls 1200, 1207, 1210. Powle Coventry Mystery 15th C.

‘The cognomen Paullus, or Paulus, the contraction of Pauxillus, originated with one of the Æmilian gens (or clan), who was small in stature,’ Latin paul(l)us, ‘little,’ ‘small.’ The activities of the Apostle, who had, it is too often but very conveniently forgotten, persecuted the Christians until he was converted by a vision, popularised his name throughout the Continent, where it has always been more general than in England, ‘in spite of... the dedication of our great cathedral.’ It is very prominent among the saints (there were thirty-eight of them), among kings and princes, and in our own literature: see especially Harvey. (Yonge.)

A name derived from the Scripture name Παυλος, signifying small (in stature).

Latin (masculine) - Little.

Paul, a worker. His former name, Saul, means a destroyer. He was a native of the city of Tarsus in Cilicia, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee by profession. He was first a persecutor, and afterwards a disciple of Christ, and an apostle to the Gentiles. See the Acts of the Apostles.

Meaning: little.

A English name, meaning: Form of Paulus.

A Gaelic name: Pòl (Classic), Pal; from Lat, Paulus, from paulus, little, English few.