Ursula

Latin
"little female bear"

Ursula Origin and Meaning

The name Ursula is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "little female bear".

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.

Caveat: Today's kids might associate this name with the campy, corpulent octopus in Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Ursula ranked in the Top 1000 through 1983. Time for a comeback?

# 989 in the US

Ursula Rank in US Top 1000

# 893 on Nameberry

Ursula Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Ursula Popularity

Famous People Named Ursula

  • Saint Ursula
    Roman,British virgin martyr; patron saint of female students
  • Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
    American novelist
  • Ursula Martius Franklin
    Canadian metallurgist, physicist and author
  • Ursula Andress
    Swiss actress
  • Ursula Goodenough
    American biologist and author
  • Ursula Mayes
    American model
  • Ursula Buchfellner
    German model
  • Ursula Corbero
    Spanish actress
  • Ursula Parker
    American actress and violinist
  • Ursula Southeil aka Mother Shipton
    English prophetess of the 16th century
  • Ursula Vernon
    American graphic novelist
  • Ursula Burns
    American CEO of Xerox
  • Ursula Plassnik
    Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • Ursula Rowland (b. 2006)
    daughter of English,born fashion journalist Plum Sykes

Ursula in Pop Culture

  • Ursula Buffay
    character on NBC's "Friends" and "Mad About You"; twin sister of Phoebe Buffay
  • Ursula Brangwen
    character in 'The Rainbow' and 'Women in Love' by D.H. Lawrence
  • Ursula March
    in 'John Halifax, Gentleman' by Dinah Craik
  • Ursula
    character in film 'George of the Jungle'
  • Ursula the Sea Witch
    in Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'
  • Ursula
    character in musical 'Bye Bye Birdie'
  • Ursula
    name Marius assumes is Cosette's name in "Les Misérables"
  • Ursula Todd
    character in "A God in Ruins" by Kate Atkinson
  • Ursula
    name of the titular bear in Joanna Newsom's song "Monkey & Bear"