The hamlet is named for its founders, individuals with surname likely Pavličič, who arrived at the end of the 16th century. The 1690 Urbarium documents a Miho Pavličič (Micho Paulischitsch) in the župa of Zilje in charge of a mill on the Kolpa river.
We know the following individuals to inhabit Pavlini were with surname Ivanovič. This was first documented in the marriage registers on 1753. This house was numbered earliest as Zilje 4, then later renumbered in the early 1800s as Balkovci 5.
Sometime in the late 1700s, the household split, both retaining the name Pavlinski, and both surname Ivanovič. The lineage at the new household to the west (numbered Balkovci 21) ended in the mid 1800s when Marko Čadonič (Košutov) moved into the house with his wife. The Ivanovič lineage ended in the original house in the late 1800s when Marko Čadonič (Pavlinski), from Balkovci 21, moved in with his family ca. 1900.
First notation of the name Pavlini was ca.1839 in birth registers.
| 1800 | 1900 | 2000 | Old House # | New House # |
| Pavlinski | Pavlinski | Pavlinski | Balkovci 5 | Balkovci 6 |
| Pavlinski | Pavlinski | Pavlinski | Balkovci 21 | Balkovci 5 |