Pavlova is a genus of algae belonging to the family Pavlovaceae.

[1] The genus has cosmopolitan distribution.

[2] The genus name of Pavlova is in honour of Anna Pawlowna Pawlowa (1881–1931), who was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.

This is because "the movement of the type species, Pavlova gyrans, is positively balletic".

[3] The genus was circumscribed by Roger William Butcher in J. Mar.