French feminine form of Paul, from Latin 'paulus' meaning 'small' or 'humble'.
Pauline is the feminine form of Paulinus, a Latin diminutive of Paulus, meaning "small" or "humble." The name entered European usage through early Christian veneration of Saint Paul the Apostle, whose epistles shaped the theological architecture of Western Christianity. By the medieval period, Pauline and its variants (Paola, Paulina, Paulette) had spread throughout Catholic Europe as devotional names honoring the apostle's legacy—names that carried the spiritual weight of humility as a virtue.
Perhaps the most historically commanding Pauline was Pauline Bonaparte (1780–1825), Napoleon's younger sister and, by most accounts, the sibling closest to him in temperament and affection. Celebrated as one of the great beauties of her age, she was immortalized in marble by Antonio Canova in his famous reclining sculpture Pauline Borghese as Venus Victrix (1808). She was bold, unconventional, and fiercely loyal—a Pauline who defined the name through force of personality.
The name also appears in literature: Pauline is central to Robert Browning's early confessional poem Pauline (1833) and to Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, where it shadows the narrative's Gothic architecture. Pauline peaked in English-speaking countries during the early-to-mid twentieth century before softening into a vintage warmth. Today it sits among those classic names due for rediscovery—elegant without ostentation, firmly rooted in classical tradition, and carrying the quiet confidence of a name that has never needed to be flashy to endure.