# Pala (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/pala/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Italian |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 623 |
| US rank (2010) | 35,993 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 495,579 people |
| Change since 2000 | +31% (474 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Various origins: * Borrowed from Italian Pala, a topographic surname for someone who lived near an upland meadow. * Borrowed from Catalan Palà, a habitational surname from a town near Barcelona; also from pala (“shovel”). * Borrowed from Polish Pala, from a vernacular name of the given name Pawel, Polish form of the name Paul. * Borrowed from Czech Pála, a nickname for an obstinate person, from Moravian dialect pała (“head”). * Borrowed from Turkish Pala, from pala (“scimitar”), from Italian pala (“shovel”). * Borrowed from Hindi पाला (pālā).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Pala in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 58% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 20% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 20% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |
| Two or more races | 1.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Pala in Kenya.

## People named Pala

- Achola Pala, a Kenyan anthropologist, sociologist, and women's policy specialist

## Similar surnames

Paul, Pal, Pahl, Pauly, Paull, Pauli, Paley, Paula, Paulo, Palo, Peal, Paoli.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.