Ulisses
Masculine · “Contested”
Ulisses is the Portuguese and Spanish form of Ulysses, which is the Roman form of Odysseus — the man who takes ten years to get home. The name changed shape twice on the way from Greek to Latin, and nobody is sure why.
How old is the name Ulisses?
Ulisses first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Ulisses alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,300 people named Ulisses are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ulisses most popular?
Ulisses peaked in 1999, reaching #1593 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 4,015 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Odysseus to Ulisses
The story of Ulisses
Odysseus is the most fully drawn character in early Greek literature — clever, deceitful, patient, and desperate to get home. The Romans knew him as Ulixes and then Ulysses, and the Latin form is what reached the modern European languages. Ulysses S. Grant, whose name was an army clerk's error, made it an American name; James Joyce made it a novel. Portuguese and Spanish use Ulisses and Ulises, and Ulisses is standard in Brazil. American records show it with Hispanic and Brazilian families, peaking in 1999.
Meaningscholars disagree
Contested; possibly to be angry, or to hate
Homer connects Odysseus to a verb odyssomai, to be angry or to hate — the Odyssey says he was named for the anger his grandfather bore. Whether that is the real etymology or a poetic wordplay is disputed, and the name may be pre-Greek. The Latin Ulixes, from which Ulysses and Ulisses come, shows a consonant change that has never been fully explained; Sicilian Greek dialect is the usual proposal.
How the name formed
- Odysseus
- Ulixes
- Ulysses
- Ulisses
Related forms: Ulisses · Ulises · Ὀδυσσεύς · Ulisse · Ulysses
Pronouncing Ulisses
oo-LEE-sez
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Portuguese and Spanish both give the u a full oo; English Ulysses is yoo-LISS-eez with a y at the front.
Nicknames for Ulisses
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 199968 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1593reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- +6.7%16 in 2025, from 15
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ulisses in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ulisses in Portuguese — same name
- Ulises in Spanish — spelling variant
- Ὀδυσσεύς in Greek — related form
- Ulisse in Italian — related form
- Ulysses in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Ulissess among us
people named Ulisses are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Ulisses
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ulisses
- #5608
- Ulisses on the 2025 chart
- #744
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ulisses went to 16 boys in 2025, but Ulysses is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 185, which makes it the 744th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,864 places above the chart.
- Ulysses169
- Ulisses16
About 1 boy in 9,233 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 106,755 for Ulisses itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Johnell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ulisses's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johnell climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johnell's path sketches the road Ulisses is walking now.
Ulisses sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Ulisses beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ulisses in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of the most fully drawn characters in world literature.
- Uli works as a warm short form.
- Three open syllables are easy to say.
- Ulysses is the commoner English spelling and will be written for it.
- The meaning is contested and may be a poetic invention.
- English and Spanish say the opening completely differently.
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What they receive
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Ulisses
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ulissess are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Ulisses are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ulisses?
- Ulisses is one of 2 recorded spellings. Ulysses is the more common one — 169 births in 2025 against 16 for Ulisses.
- How popular is the name Ulisses in 2025?
- Ulisses ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ulisses?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Ulisses — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ulisses with classmates?
- Ulisses will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ulisses
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ulisses? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ulisses and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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