Meaning:
Its source is Paulus, a Latin name meaning "Small."
Narrative:
To Christians, this name calls to mind St. Paul, a key figure in the spread of Christianity.
Born to a devout Jewish family in the Hellenistic city of Tarsus, the saint may have been given two names at birth -- the Hebrew Saul and the Greco-Latin Paul.
After a vision changed him from a persecutor of the Christians to their most zealous promoter, his desire to spread the faith to the non-Jewish world might have moved him to prefer Paul, a Greco-Roman name common throughout the ancient world, to the unmistakably Jewish name Saul.
However, his letters make it clear that he always considered himself first and foremost a Jew, but one who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of ancient Jewish Messianic prophecies.
