Holiday Calendar

National Paula Day

Next celebratedTuesday, December 29, 2026

In February 1963 a song called Hey Paula spent three weeks atop the Billboard chart, and that year American parents named 10,156 girls Paula, more than in any year before or since. December 29 marks the long decline after.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEDecember 29
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
“Eleven countries keep a Paula name day. None of them keeps it in December.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Traceable online to 2022, and no further back.

No founder, sponsor or proclamation has been identified for National Paula Day. It spread through online holiday listings, the way these single-name American observances circulate, and its December 29 slot matches none of the traditional Paula name days kept across Europe.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

The year the charts and the birth records moved together

In February 1963 a song called Hey Paula sat at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for three straight weeks. That same year American parents gave the name Paula to 10,156 baby girls, more than in any year before or since. National Paula Day belongs to the long decline that followed.

The two facts sit beside each other in the record, and nothing in the record connects them. What can be checked is how odd 1963 was. Paula was the only girls' name already running at 5,000 births or more that gained 40 percent or more that year, and it did so while American girls' births were falling overall.

The observance itself is thinner than the name behind it. No founder is on record, and anyone who goes looking for the reason behind the date finds a calendar tradition pointing somewhere else entirely.

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ORIGINS

Paula Day history

INTRODUCTION

In September 385 a Roman widow named Paula left the city for good. She had been born in 347 into a family tied to the gens Cornelia, married a senator called Toxotius, and was widowed at 32. She left for the Holy Land with her daughter Eustochium and never returned.

She settled at Bethlehem, where two monasteries were founded, one for men and one for women. Her feast falls on January 26, and that date is still the Paula name day across much of Catholic Europe.

CHAPTER 01

The climb through the American files

Paula appears in the first year of American federal birth data, 1880, attached to nine girls. It stayed small for six decades. In 1943 it entered the national top 100 for the first time, at number 93.

Then it moved quickly. By 1954 it reached number 38, the best rank in the whole series, and the Social Security Administration's own decade table places it 46th for the 1950s.

CHAPTER 02

What happened in 1963

The name's largest single year came nine years after its best rank, and it arrived alongside a hit record. Hey Paula, credited to a duo billed as Paul and Paula, topped the American singles chart that February.

The birth data for that year is strange on its own terms. Girls' births in the federal file fell about 2 percent, and the mid-century staples fell with them: Linda dropped almost 12 percent, and Donna slipped as well. Paula rose 41 percent.

CHAPTER 03

A day with no author

The observance is the youngest thing on this page and the least documented. Archived copies of holiday listings show National Paula Day circulating with its December 29 date by August 2022, which is the earliest independent trace anyone has located.

No registrar or sponsoring organisation has been identified, and a full-text search of the Federal Register returns nothing for the day. Why it landed in December, when the European calendars keep Paula in January, February, March and June, is not explained by any source located.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Paula Day by the Numbers

84,869
US girls named Paula in the 1950s
+2,963
Paula's biggest one-year rise in births
146 of 146
Federal year files listing Paula
318
US girls named Paula in 2025

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Paula Day

Neither singer was named Paul or Paula

The duo were Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson, who met at Howard Payne College in Texas. Billboard reports that Mercury Records chief Shelby Singleton renamed them, apparently concerned that an act called Ray and Jill singing hey, hey Paula was a bridge too far.

The saint behind the name read Hebrew

The Catholic Encyclopedia records that Paula and her daughter Eustochium studied and mastered Hebrew perfectly. Vatican News goes further in its life of her, saying she herself suggested the need for the Latin translation of the Bible and helped copy the work.

December 29 belongs to other names

A name-day calendar covering 19 countries lists David, Thomas, Judita, Noah, Rauha, Marina and Natalia for December 29. Paula is not among them in any of the 19.

Her nuns sang the whole Psalter from memory

Vatican News records that the women in Paula's Bethlehem monastery sang the entire Psalter every day. They had to know all of it by heart.

One debut album, four number ones

Paula Abdul's first album put Straight Up, Forever Your Girl, Cold Hearted and Opposites Attract on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The last of the four did not reach number one until February 1990.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Paula born in Rome

She was born into one of the first families of Rome and would go on to have five children.

Paula sails for the Holy Land

She and her daughter Eustochium set out that September, on a pilgrimage that ended in Bethlehem for good.

Paula enters the American top 100

The name reached number 93 in the federal birth data, its first appearance inside the national top 100.

Best rank in the series

Paula reached number 38 among American girls' names, a position it never bettered before or after.

A record year for the name

The count reached 10,156 girls, a high the name has not approached before or since.

Earliest trace of the observance

Archived holiday listings show the December 29 observance circulating by August, the oldest independent record located.

GOOD TO KNOW

National Paula Day Around the World

Spain

January 26, the feast of Paula of Rome

Poland

January 26, and again on June 3 and June 18

Hungary

January 26, shared with the Spanish and Croatian calendars

Germany

January 20, six days before the Catholic feast

Sweden

June 22, the Nordic and Baltic date shared with Finland and Estonia

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Paula Day Matters

EVIDENCE

Federal birth data has counted Paulas every year since 1880.

Paula sits in every annual file the Social Security Administration has published since 1880. Claims about the name can therefore be checked against a federal count rather than taken on trust.

SPORT

A Paula held the marathon record for sixteen years

Paula Radcliffe's 2:15:25 from the 2003 London Marathon stood as the women's world record for sixteen years, until Brigid Kosgei ran 2:14:04 at Chicago in October 2019. Athletics officials tried to reclassify it as a world best in 2011, and the mark stayed on the books regardless.

CALENDAR

Two dates compete for the same name

Most of Europe marks Paula on January 26, while the American day falls on December 29. Readers arriving from either tradition tend to want to know which date is actually theirs.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Paula Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look the name up in the federal data

The Social Security Administration publishes every given name with at least five American births per year, going back to 1880. Search its baby names pages to see where Paula, or your own name, sits in the series.

MARK

Mark January 26 as well

Five European countries keep the older Paula name day on the feast of Paula of Rome. Adding it to a calendar gives anyone named Paula a second date with a much longer history behind it.

READ

Read the fourth-century life behind the feast

Almost everything known about Paula of Rome comes from the letters of Jerome, who wrote her life as his Letter CVIII. The Catholic Encyclopedia entry is a short way in.

PLAY

Play the February 1963 number one

Hey Paula topped the American chart in February 1963, the same year the name peaked. Hearing it puts the record year back in its own soundtrack.

ASK

Ask a Paula which date she keeps

The calendars in Spain, Poland and Hungary all say January 26, while an American may not keep a name day at all. Their answer will point to one tradition or the other.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Paula Day?

1 / 8

In which year did the name Paula reach its highest number of American births?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no federal recognition, so schools, banks and offices all keep normal hours.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

9sources
5primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Social Security Administration
Top names of the 1950s
The agency's own ranked table of the 200 most popular American boys' and girls' names of the 1950s, with counts. It places Paula 46th for the decade with 84,869 births.
View source
U.S. Social Security Administration2025 data year
Popular baby names: national data, 1880 to 2025
The national dataset listing every given name with at least five American births per year and sex, one file per year from 1880 to 2025. It is the source for Paula's annual counts, ranks and unbroken 146-year run.
View source
Billboard1963-02-09
Billboard Hot 100, chart dated February 9, 1963
The weekly American singles chart showing Hey Paula by Paul and Paula at number one. The charts on either side bound the run at three weeks, from February 9 to February 23, 1963.
View source
U.S. Federal Register
Federal Register documents full-text search
The official daily journal of the United States government. Full-text searches return no documents mentioning National Paula Day.
View source
Vatican News
St. Paula, Roman Matron
The Holy See's saint-of-the-day entry filed under January 26, giving Paula's birth in 347, her marriage to the senator Toxotius, the two monasteries at Bethlehem, and its own account of her role in the Latin translation of the Bible.
View source
Additional coverage
Billboard2023-08
Ray Hildebrand, of Paul and Paula, Dies at 82
An obituary of the singer billed as Paul, identifying the duo as Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson and recording that Mercury Records chief Shelby Singleton renamed the act.
View source
New Advent1911
Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Paula
Louis Saltet's 1911 encyclopedia entry, giving Paula's birth in Rome in 347, her widowhood in 379, her departure from Rome in September 385, and the statement that she and Eustochium mastered Hebrew.
View source
Behind the Name
Name days for the name Paula
An index of all 14 national name-day assignments for Paula across 11 countries, none of which falls on December 29. January 26 is the most widely kept date.
View source
European Athletics2020-04
On this day, Radcliffe clocks 2:15:25 in the 2003 London Marathon
An account of Paula Radcliffe's 2003 London Marathon world record, the 2:14:04 by Brigid Kosgei at Chicago in October 2019 that ended it, and the failed 2011 attempt to reclassify the mark as a world best.
View source
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