Glyn
Masculine · “valley”
Glyn is given to both — 1,383 boys and 92 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Glyn is the Welsh word for a valley, and English borrowed the same word twice. Glen came in from Gaelic and glyn stayed Welsh, so the language has two forms of one Celtic word, one of which became an ordinary English noun and the other of which remained a name and a place-name element in Wales.
How old is the name Glyn?
Glyn first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Glyn alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 600 people named Glyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Glyn most popular?
Glyn peaked in 1934, reaching #1038 nationally. See the whole 1934 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Celtic word for a narrow valley to Glyn
The story of Glyn
The most famous Welshman to carry it took his name from a valley and led the last serious Welsh rising against English rule. He was a landowner with a legal training and a grievance about a boundary dispute that the English courts would not hear, and within a few years of that dispute he had been proclaimed prince of Wales, held most of the country, summoned a parliament, planned two universities and negotiated with France. It collapsed after about a decade. He was never captured and never betrayed, despite substantial rewards being offered, and the date and place of his death are unknown, which is a rare thing for a man that prominent and is generally taken as a comment on how his own people regarded him.
Meaning
valley
The Welsh word means a valley, specifically a narrow one with a stream in it, and the reading is settled. It appears in a very large number of Welsh place names and in surnames built from them. The English word glen is the Gaelic cognate of the same Celtic root, borrowed separately, which is why the two look alike and are spelled differently.
How the name formed
- A Celtic word for a narrow valley
- Borrowed into English twice, as glen and as glyn
- A very common element in Welsh place names
- Glyn as a Welsh first name and surname
Related forms: Glyn · Gleann
Pronouncing Glyn
GLIN
One syllable, said with a short i. The Welsh y here writes a vowel close to the English short i, though Welsh has two values for the letter and the other one is quite different, which is why Welsh names with a y are unpredictable to English readers.
Nicknames for Glyn
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 195335 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1038reached in 1934
- Change vs 1994
- 0.0%5 in 2009, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Glyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Glyn in Welsh — same name
- Gleann in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Glyns among us
people named Glyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Glyn sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- One syllable, no ambiguity, and nothing to teach anybody.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- The meaning is concrete and can be explained in one word.
- It will be written Glenn or Glynn by nearly everybody who hears it.
- It reads as distinctly Welsh, which is a feature for some families and not others.
- It is firmly of the earlier twentieth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Glyn
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Glyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Glyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Glyn in 2025?
- Glyn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Glyn with classmates?
- Glyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
George#126 · Gary#1073 · Gregory#593 · Gerald#1204 · Gabriel#37 · Glenn#1443 · Gavin#303 · Gordon#1051
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Glyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Glyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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