Spanish word name meaning 'peace'; also Hebrew for 'golden' or 'shining.'
Paz comes from the Latin *pax* and its Spanish and Portuguese descendent *paz*, both meaning peace — the same root that gave us the English words pacify, Pacific, and pacifist. In the Hebrew tradition, Paz carries an entirely different and equally beautiful meaning: gold, or golden. This duality — peace in the Romance languages, gold in Hebrew — gives the name a remarkable richness for just three letters, as if it were hiding a secret second life.
As a given name, Paz has been used for centuries in the Spanish-speaking world, honoring the ideal of peace and connected to the Marian title *Nuestra Señora de la Paz* (Our Lady of Peace), which is also the name of Bolivia's seat of government. The Mexican writer and Nobel laureate Octavio Paz gave the surname global literary prestige, his poetry and essays exploring love, identity, and Mexican culture with extraordinary depth. In contemporary usage, Spanish actress Paz Vega brought the given name to wider international recognition through her film and television career.
Paz is now gaining admirers well beyond Spanish-speaking communities. Its brevity and clarity appeal to parents who want a name that is unmistakably meaningful but wears that meaning lightly. It functions beautifully as both a standalone name and a middle name, sitting confidently between longer names without being swallowed. In an era of elaborate baby names, Paz's three-letter directness feels quietly radical — a name that says everything it needs to say.