Star Trek introduced me to this name and I must say I love it. It is better than Paul, and used much less. It's unique but easy to say. Maybe it's my love of the character, that's affecting my opinions on the name.
Another Soviet cosmonaut bearing the name is Pavel Belyayev (1925-1970), commander of the 1965 Voskhod 2 mission, in which his crew mate, Alexei Leonov, performed the first spacewalk.
Pavel Konstantinovich Mamaev is a Russian footballer who plays as midfielder for FC Krasnodar. He primarily plays as a central midfielder or winger. At CSKA Moscow he played as a defensive midfielder or deep-lying playmaker.
A famous bearer of the name Pavel is Pavel Popovich, a Soviet cosmonaut, the first Ukrainian to go in space, the fourth Soviet in space, and the eight man in space. He went up in space in the year of 1962 and 1974.
Pavel Datsyuk is the current captain of Russia's national Ice hockey team as well as assistant captain of the NHL hockey team The Detroit Red Wings. He is considered to be one of the best two way players of all time, and is known as 'the magic man'.
I really like this name, especially as an alternative to Paul, a nice name but rather overused. I really like the story of Paul in the Bible, and this name allows me to use it without being cliche. I also like the natural feel to it. Awesome name! Love it, love it, love it!
Pavel (1704-1707) was also the name of another son of Tsar Peter I of Russia and his second wife Ekaterina. He died young. His younger brother (1717-1717) was also named Pavel.