Names From The Iliad & Odyssey
The Iliad follows a crisis in the Trojan War; the Odyssey follows the long road home. This collection brings together the mortals and gods who shape both poems, using familiar English forms alongside Greek names.
| Save name | Name & connection | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The queen whose presence in Troy haunts the Iliad. | 668#462 | Down 36 rank positions in five years | 1918 | ||
A daughter of Priam, seen mourning Troy's losses in the Iliad. | 463#631 | Up 24 rank positions in five years | 1990 | ||
The queen of Ithaca, who resists the suitors during Odysseus's absence. | 6,225#22 | Up 4 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
The Trojan prince and leading defender of the city in the Iliad. | 779#409 | Down 44 rank positions in five years | 2005 | ||
A divine messenger in the Iliad. | 3,729#61 | Up 66 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The goddess who repeatedly helps Odysseus and Telemachus. | 2,477#109 | Down 2 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
The Latin form of Odysseus used in many English retellings. | 169#1,201 | Down 133 rank positions in five years | 1999 | ||
The elderly king of Pylos who advises the Greek commanders. | 113#1,535 | Up 205 rank positions in five years | 1991 | ||
The Trojan prince whose dispute helps bring about the war. | 60#2,326 | Down 237 rank positions in five years | 1991 | ||
The god whose plague begins the crisis in the Iliad. | 708#445 | Up 3 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
The war god who fights on the Trojan side. | 1,157#290 | Up 306 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The anger of Achilles opens the Iliad. | 151#1,290 | Down 239 rank positions in five years | 2018 | ||
The woman whose seizure sparks the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. | 23#5,436 | Down 2,246 rank positions in five years | 2006 | ||
The goddess who supports the Greeks in the Iliad. | 63#2,730 | Up 382 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The messenger god who guides and delivers divine instructions. | 37#3,208 | Up 1,896 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The wandering king whose homecoming is told in the Odyssey. | 44#2,869 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The divine woman who keeps Odysseus on Ogygia. | 59#2,865 | Up 763 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
A name shared by two warriors in the Greek forces. | 36#3,242 | Up 899 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
The enchantress whose island Odysseus visits. | 28#4,791 | Up 1,111 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
The king of Troy and father of Hector and Paris. | 13#6,712 | Up 3,616 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
The Phaeacian princess who helps the shipwrecked Odysseus. | —Unranked | — | 2022 | ||
A Greek commander who fights both men and gods in the Iliad. | —Unranked | — | 1989 |
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Sources & methodology
Meaning summaries use Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and referenced name histories. Each name’s detail page includes its sources.
Membership on this list is editorial — we chose names that genuinely fit the theme. Every number is from official birth data: "—" means the name had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, which makes it a genuinely rare pick today, not an invalid one. The dot marks whether the stats shown are for the girls' or boys' use of the name.