The Hebrew name of the Apostle Paul — Saul of Tarsus, persecutor turned apostle, whose encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road transformed world history.
The Greek Saulos is the Greek form of the Hebrew Shaul (Saul), meaning 'asked for' or 'prayed for.' Paul bore two names: Saulos (his Jewish/Hebrew name, used in Acts 7:58-13:9) and Paulos (his Roman name, used from Acts 13:9 onward). The transition to Paulos in Acts 13:9 corresponds to his explicit Gentile mission. Saulos appears in Acts 7:58 (consenting to Stephen's stoning), Acts 9:1-19 (Damascus road encounter), Acts 22 and 26 (Paul's own retelling of his conversion), and Philippians 3:5 ('a Hebrew of Hebrews... a Pharisee').
The name Saulos carries the weight of Israel's first king — Saul of Benjamin — and Paul was himself a Benjaminite (Romans 11:1; Philippians 3:5). Israel's Saul started as God's anointed and became a persecutor of David; Paul the Pharisee started as a persecutor of Christ and became his greatest apostle. The irony is not incidental: Paul himself draws on this in Philippians 3 and 1 Timothy 1:12-16 — 'I was a blasphemer and a persecutor... but I was shown mercy.' The transformation of Saulos into Paulos is the testimony of grace that could stop anyone: if God could turn the chief of persecutors into the apostle to the Gentiles, grace has no limits.