Pamela - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 3 syll. pa-me-la, pam-ela ] The girl name Pamela is pronounced as PAEMahLah ^KEY. Pamela is primarily used in the English, German, and Italian languages, and its language of origin is Old Greek. The name is of the meaning all black, all sweetness. The name was invented by the Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney for his pastoral work Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1590). He could have derived the name from the Old Greek Pammelas, of the elements 'pan' (all, every) and 'melas' (black, dark), or else the second element could have been 'meli' (honey). Sidney created the name with a stress on the second syllable; the modern pronunciation was later promoted by the English writer Samuel Richardson through his highly popular novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), which features a virtuous maid Pamela Andrews pursued relentless by her master. The name thereafter saw an increase in popularity from the middle of the 18th century.

The English names Pamelia, Pamelina, Pamilia, Pammala, Pammi, and Pamula are variant forms of the name.

Other forms of Pamela include the short form Pam (English, German, and Italian), the pet forms Pammie (English) and Pammy (English), and the variant spellings Pamala (English), Pamella (English), Pamila (English), and Pamilla (English).

Pamela is a classic favorite. Currently it is still fairly popular as a baby name for girls, though to a lesser extent than it was previously. The name jumped in popularity from the 1920s up to the 1950s; prior to that, it was of very light use only. At the height of its usage in 1954, 1.374% of baby girls were given the name Pamela. Its ranking then was #12. The baby name has since substantially declined in popularity. In 2008, its usage was 0.022% and its ranking #670, but it was nonetheless the most regularly used within all girl names in its group. The name Pamela has predominantly been a girl name, though it has also been given to boys in the past century. In 1969, Pamela as a girl name outnumbered its use as a boy name by 230 times.

Baby names that sound like Pamela include the English Pamala, the English Pamella, the English Pamila, the English Pamilla, the English Pammala, the English Pamula, the Choctaw Panola, the English Pamelia, and the English Pamilia.

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