She’s a Bond girl and a Disney villain.  Could she also be the perfect name for a daughter?

Thanks to Natalie for suggesting Ursula as Name of the Day.

If Disney’s The Little Mermaid propelled Ariel to new heights in 1989, the movie did no favors for Ursula.  The traditional version of the fairytale includes a sea witch – the magical force who agrees to swap out a fish tale for legs.  In 1989, Disney dubbed the witch Ursula, a larger-than-life, purple-skinned, white-haired, tentacle-waving menace.

Ursula had ranked in the US Top 1000 most years from 1880 to 1983.  But she hasn’t been heard from since the 80s.

Despite the octopus-like animated creature, Ursula actually means little bear, from the Latin ursa.  (Think Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.)  

She has been in use throughout history because of a legendary saint.

Saint Ursula’s story begins in England, either in the fourth or fifth century.  She was a Christian princess dispatched to make a dynastic marriage with a pagan ruler overseas.  But when her ship landed ahead of schedule, she declared that she’d make a pilgrimage to Rome before tying the knot.  She made it as far as Cologne, where she met her death at the hands of the Huns.

This is where the story becomes pure fiction.  It is said that Ursula set sail with 11,000 handmaidens.  The Huns dispatched all 11,001 of them.  Visit Cologne today and you can tour the Church of St. Ursula, where their bones are on display, arranged into sculptures.  While the bones are real, some have argued that they come from a forgotten cemetery or belonged to children or even animals.  

Another theory suggests that Ursula existed, but that she set out with a more modest retinue – perhaps 11 maidens.  Sometime in the Middle Ages the inscription XI. M. V. – eleven martyred virgins – was misinterpreted as eleven thousand.  It’s a heck of a medieval typo.

If finding a saint’s name is a priority, never fear.  Born Julia Ledóchowska in 1865, the founder of the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus took the name Ursula.  She’s now a saint.

But she’s also a sex symbol.  Honey Ryder – the first Bond girl in 1962′s Dr. No – was played by Swiss-born actress Ursula Andress.

A few other notable bearers of the name include:

• Ursula K. Le Guin is a legendary science fiction author;
• DH Lawrence used the name Ursula for one of the Brangwen sisters, whose lives he chronicled in 1915′s The Rainbow and 1920′s Women in Love;
• Then there’s Ursula Buffay.  Lisa Kudrow played Ursula, a minor if memorable character on the sitcom Mad About You.  When Kudrow was cast as Phoebe on Friends, writers took advantage of the situation and made Ursula Phoebe’s evil twin, the source of a few plotlines over the years.

Ursula is a lot of name, but could lend itself to the nicknames Sue or Susie.  

Or you could use all three syllables.  Despite her feminine ends-in-a construction, Ursula feels more like the strong Ingrid than the frilly Alyssa.

It’s an unconventional choice, but one with roots and an interesting style.