Odysseus

Meaning & origin●(measured from records)

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

How Odysseus is read●(measured from records)

Odysseus is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• English61%

  Greek mythological name; hero of the 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…

  A male given name from Ancient Greek.

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

• Greek9.2%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Odysseus in Greek.

• Spanish9.2%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Odysseus in Spanish.

• German5.6%

  männl. Vom. aus der griechischen

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Odysseus is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Greek given name20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, Germany, United Kingdom

  Languages: Greek, English, German

  Also written Odysseas, Οδυσσεας, Οδυσσέας, Odisseas, Odusseas

27 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.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Prince Odysseus-Kimon of Greece and Denmarkb. 2004GBmember of the former Greek royal family

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).

How to address them○(machine-generated)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Odysseus mean, and where does it come from?

Greek mythological name; hero of the Odyssey. Recorded by Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular….

Is Odysseus a male or female name?

Odysseus 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.

How do you pronounce Odysseus?

A machine transcription gives /oʊdɪsiəs/ (IPA) for English.

What are other forms of the name Odysseus?

In the etymology graph, Ulises, Ulysses and Ulisses are forms of the same name in other languages.

In which country does Odysseus have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 339 people named Odysseus, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled odysseus.

Where is Odysseus most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Odysseus is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 375 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is the name Odysseus?

In the United States, the national register counted 339 people named Odysseus in 2020, about 1 in 981 thousand residents.