Pamela - Origin and Meaning of the name

The girl name Pamela [ 3 syll. pa-me-la, pam-ela ] is pronounced as PAEMahLah ^KEY. Pamela is primarily used in the English, German, and Italian languages, and its language of origin is Old Greek. Pamela has the meaning all black, all sweetness. Developed from the elements 'pan' meaning all, every ; 'melas' meaning black, dark ; 'meli' meaning honey. 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' and 'melas', or else the second element could have been 'meli'. 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 Pamala, Pamelia, Pamella, Pamila, Pamilia, and Pammala are variant forms of the name. Other variants of Pamela include the English pet form Pammy and the English, German, and Italian short form Pam.

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 2007, its usage was 0.024% and its ranking #584, 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 names Pamala, Pamella, Pamila, Pammala, Pamelia, and Pamilia.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Pamela: P as in "pee (P.IY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"

Details of famous persons named Pamela:
Actress Pamela Anderson, born 1 July 1967, Ladysmith, B.C., Canada.
Groupie Pamela Des Barres, born Pamela Miller, 9 September 1948, Reseda, California.

Popularity Trend
for Pamela
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Pamela
in 2007