The Best Rare Names of WWII - Boys

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.

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.

This would make a startling but likable choice; poet Dylan Thomas used it for a character in his play "Under Milk Wood."

Schoolchildren will recognize this name via Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama.

Old World Italian name that might become fashionable in a so-far-out-it's-in way, like Enzo and Rocco. Main recommendation: It's among the rare boy names that mean life.

The Finnish word for "victory" is a rare name even throughout the Nordic country, but with its on-trend V sound it could make a striking choice.

Wade has never been outside the US Top 1000 for boys - there's a reason for that. It has a clean spelling, fresh sound and is neither too trendy (unlike Kade or Cade) or too old-school (like Richard or Albert). We think Wade is a winning name.

Walker is both a Waspy surname name—as in the W in George W. Bush—but it also has a gentle ambling quality and a creative connection to such greats as writer Walker Percy and photographer Walker Evans, whose father was also named Walker.

Waverly, with its literary resonance and lilting three-syllable sound, could well become the next generation's successor to Kimberly. Although, like Kimberly, it's overwhelmingly catching on for girls. Its cool, bohemian surname feel places it among the new stylish English names for girls, successors to Ashley and Whitney.

Wells is a newly-famous baby name thanks to pregnancy guru Rosie Pope, who uses it as the short form of the buttoned-up Wellington, name of her youngest child.