Latin Names that Start With U

In an epic poem, the personification of truth, beauty, and unity; this ancient name is popular in several European countries but less common in the US. The Oona spelling is slightly more popular but Una sleeker.

Ulysses is one of the few U boys' names anyone knows -- with heavy links to the Homeric hero, eighteenth president Grant, and the James Joyce novel -- all of which makes it both distinguished and kind of weighty for a modern boy. Ulysses was on the US popularity list well into the twenty-first century; it's off now, but Number 684 on Nameberry.

A saint's name with a noteworthy literary background, including uses by Shakespeare in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Much Ado About Nothing, by Ben Johnson, Walter Scott, Longfellow, D. H. Lawrence and Neil Gaiman. In real life, her two most well known representatives are writer Ursula Le Guin and actress Ursula Andress. In literature, there is also Ursula Iguaran, a key, long-lived character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's major work, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Urban was not an uncommon name through the 1930s (rising as high as Number 435), having been attached to several saints and early popes, but it has completely disappeared from the landscape--both urban and rural. Yet in this era of word name appreciation and trend for 'an'-ending boys' names, we're thinking it might be ready for a return.

Mythological water spirit with the more common spelling of Ondine, heroine of an Edith Wharton novel.

Pretty French sound, but there might be a lot of "umbrella" cracks.

An uncommon Latin and Italian name which would make a fitting choice for a final baby – but be aware that many would associate it with the cosmetics brand or the Ultimo brand of lingerie.

This name of eight popes might appeal to confirmed city-dwellers, but Urbana would be more feminine.

If you live in the city, you might call your urban baby Urbana; if you live in the suburbs--don't even think of Surbana.