From Old French 'page' meaning young servant or attendant, now a popular unisex name.
Paige began as an English surname and occupational term, derived from page, the medieval word for a young servant or attendant, especially one in training in a noble household. That term came into English through Old French from Latin sources connected to service and youth. As with many surnames that later became given names, Paige carries traces of medieval social structure but has long since shed the literal occupational meaning in ordinary use.
Its spelling with -ai- gives it a clean, polished look, while its single syllable lends it a poised simplicity. As a first name, Paige rose in the modern era, especially in the late twentieth century, when surname-style names became fashionable for girls in the United States and elsewhere in the English-speaking world. It came to be associated with intelligence, freshness, and a certain understated chic.
The name also carries literary associations because a “page” is a leaf of a book, which gives it a faintly bookish and scholarly aura even though that is a separate etymology. In popular culture, Paige has appeared frequently in television and fiction, often attached to characters who are confident, articulate, or contemporary. Over time, it has evolved from a surname-like novelty into a well-established modern classic. Paige feels professional without stiffness and feminine without ornament, which helps explain why it has endured even as naming fashions shift around it.