Gleb

Gleb is one compact syllable, an Old Norse-derived name meaning something like "heir of God" or "under God's protection," brought into Russian tradition by way of the Varangians. Saint Gleb, martyred with his brother Boris in the eleventh century, became one of the first native saints of Kievan Rus, and the pair's names have been linked ever since. The single beat lands with the thud of a book shut firmly, no vowels to soften its edges. Uncommon outside Slavic countries and unusual even within them, Gleb carries a solemn, almost monastic weight. For parents drawn to brevity and archaic depth, it delivers both.