Ulysses

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Ulises in ES Spain.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ulysses is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name34K records spelled Ulysses3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Philippines, France

  Languages: Portuguese, French

  Also written Ulyssës

• a separate given name1.8K records spelled Ulysses2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Philippines

  Also written Ulyssés

50 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ulysses is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, Latin name form of Odysseus

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, Latin-derived form o/ OdysseuS;

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In English, novel, J. Joyce; pers. name

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In English, The famous wanderer of Homer’s Odyssey

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, männl. Vom., eine lateinische

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Maximilian Ulysses Browneb. 1705CHAustrian field marshal
• Ulysses S. Grantb. 1822USpresident of the United States from 1869 to 1877
• Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.b. 1852USAmerican businessman (1852-1929)
• Frank Grantb. 1865USnot in their usual nameAmerican Hall of Fame baseball player
• Ulysses S. Stoneb. 1878USAmerican politician (1878–1962)
• Ulysses Simpson Grant IVb. 1893USAmerican geologist and paleontologist (1893-1977)
• Ulysses Kayb. 1917UScomposer (1917–1995)
• Junior Bridgemanb. 1953USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player and businessman
• Ulysses Fehmijub. 1968RSSerbian actor
• Ulysses Llanezb. 2001USAmerican soccer player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 277 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ulysses?

We estimate roughly 51 thousand people bear Ulysses (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Ulysses have the most bearers?

We estimate about 18 thousand people bear Ulysses in Brazil, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled ulysses.

Where is Ulysses most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Ulysses is densest in Costa Rica — about 1 in 3.2 thousand people — even though Brazil holds more of our records for it.

How common is Ulysses compared with other names?

In Ghana, Ulysses is the 543rd most common given name of 14,190 given names recorded there.

Is Ulysses a male or female name?

Ulysses is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ulysses mean?

Recorded meaning: Latin form Ulixes for Greek Odysseus; in Ireland used to anglicise Ulick.