Palama

surname · Latin script

Meaning: An old unit of weight used in Ceylon

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Palama is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Pakistan than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • RERéunion≈1 in 12K(inferred from the name graph)
  • FRFrance≈1 in 284K
  • ITItaly≈1 in 468K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Pakistan (inferred from the name graph)

≈330 people, est.

Sources
83 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 12K (inferred from the name graph)

Réunion, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

An old unit of weight used in Ceylon.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Where in the world(measured from records)

Palama counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Palama is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
PK Pakistan≈330 est.≈1 in 698K—Palama1
NG Nigeria≈300 est.≈1 in 718K—Palama11
FR France≈240 est.≈1 in 284K67——
US United States1851 in 1.8M185Palama83
PH Philippines≈180 est.≈1 in 598K—Palama14
IT Italy≈130 est.≈1 in 468KlistedPalama8
RE Réunion≈63 est.≈1 in 12K—Palama8
CH Switzerland141 in 600K14—1

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); the xinhua-italian-manual register; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Palama is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Switzerland, Philippines

    Also written Pâlamâ, Palamà, Palamã

  • Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Mexico, Philippines, Spain, United States

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Palamà, Palamá, Palamã

  • Thai surname12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand

    Also written ปาละมะ, พละมา, ปะละมะ, ปาละมา, ปาลามา

  • Italian surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Italy, Spain

    Also written Palamà, Palama', Palamã, Palamá

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Palamà, Pālama

25 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Palama is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In kmb, Rival

    as a wordDiccionario Portuguez-Kimbundu

  • In Latvian, Vārds, vārdu savienojums, kurā sauc (cilvēku, izceļot vai arī piedēvējot kādu, parasti negatīvu, īpašību, pazīmi); iesauka

    as a wordTēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

  • In Latvian, pilsēta Grieķijā ("Παλαμάς"), Tesālijas perifērijā, 5700 iedzīvotāju (2011. g.)

    as a wordTēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

  • In Latvian, Uzvārds

    as a wordTēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 18 sources across 12 countries.

Official registers attesting Palama
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010185#98,099
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020182#104,723
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000152#108,153
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)197180—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)196168—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)199167—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)198159—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)195152—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)194131—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)193122—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)192113—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)191113—

Reference works 1

  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Palama mean, and where does it come from?
An old unit of weight used in Ceylon. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Palama have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 334 people named Palama in Pakistan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled palama.
How common is the name Palama?
In the United States, the national register counted 185 people named Palama in 2010, about 1 in 1.8 million residents.

What do you want to know about Palama?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/palama

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Palama”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Palama parses inside a full name →