Gleb
Meaning
“Russian form of the Old Norse Guðleifr, from guð, 'god', and leifr, 'heir' or 'inheritance'; borne by Saint Gleb of Kievan Rus”
The story
Gleb is Russian by way of Scandinavia: the Old Norse Guðleifr, from guð, god, and leifr, glossed heir by some references and inheritance, legacy by others. The anchor story is a thousand years old. Gleb and his brother Boris, princes of Kievan Rus, were killed around 1015 in the power struggle that followed the death of their father, Vladimir the Great, and because they met death without resisting evil with violence, they were canonized as passion-bearers, the first saints ever made in Kievan Rus. Russia has kept the name working since: Gleb Uspensky wrote, Gleb Panfilov directed, Gleb Savchenko dances. Neither the American record nor Brazil's census carries enough Glebs to count. One syllable, a god's inheritance folded inside it, and the oldest sainthood in the Russian book.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Gleb does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick.
The Gleb deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Gleb truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Gleb fits with your family’s names and surname.
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