Ulisses
Greek name derived from "Odysseus", meaning courageous and crafty.
Name Census estimates that about 1,273 living Americans carry the first name Ulisses. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ulisses today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ulisses births was 1999 (68 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ulisses. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 269,249 Americans
Peak year
1999
68 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,136
Tracked since 1971
Popularity
Ulisses: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ulisses from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 504 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ulisses by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ulisses during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ulisses' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Ulisses, while Arizona, Illinois, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 194 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ulisses
The name Ulisses is derived from the Greek "Odysseus," the Latin form of the name of the legendary hero from Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. The name Odysseus is believed to have originated from the Greek word "odyssasthai," meaning "to suffer" or "to be hated."
Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, was one of the central characters in ancient Greek mythology. He was known for his intelligence, resourcefulness, and cunning, which helped him survive the Trojan War and the perilous journey home that took a decade and is recounted in the Odyssey.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Ulisses can be traced back to the 16th century, when it was adopted as a Portuguese variant of the Greek name. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Ulisses Andrada, a 16th-century Portuguese explorer and navigator.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Ulisses. One of the most famous was Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), the 18th President of the United States, who led the Union Army to victory during the American Civil War. Another was Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), an Italian naturalist and one of the founders of modern natural history.
In literature, the name Ulisses is perhaps most famously associated with James Joyce's modernist novel "Ulysses," published in 1922. The novel follows the wanderings of Leopold Bloom through Dublin over the course of a single day, drawing parallels with the travels of Odysseus in Homer's epic.
Other notable individuals named Ulisses include Ulisses Guimarães (1916-1992), a Brazilian politician and lawyer who played a crucial role in the country's transition to democracy; and Ulisses Spínola (1904-1987), a Portuguese general and politician who was a key figure in the Carnation Revolution that overthrew the Estado Novo regime in 1974.
People
Ulisses + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ulisses as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with U
Other first names starting with U with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ulisses: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ulisses?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,273 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ulisses going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 269,249 US residents.
Is Ulisses a common name?
We classify Ulisses as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,296 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ulisses most popular?
The single biggest year for Ulisses was 1999, when 68 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ulisses is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ulisses a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ulisses in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.