Glen
- Pronunciation
- [Glen]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From The Valley
- Origin
- Celtic
About the Name Glen
Glen is a serene name of Celtic origin meaning "from the valley," derived from the Gaelic gleann, a narrow, often wooded valley. Long popular as a given name across Scotland, Ireland, and beyond, it carries an air of quiet, natural beauty and a relaxed, single-syllable simplicity that suits its peaceful meaning. It evokes misty highland landscapes and a calm, grounded character, the kind of nature-rooted name that feels timeless and unpretentious.
In modern Social Security records the name had a brief presence near the bottom of the top-1000. Glen first entered the US top-1000 in 2000, reached its best rank of #765 that same year, and slipped off the list after 2003, when it sat at #970. In all it was given to about 759 boys during those years, the signature of a once-common mid-century name settling into rarer use even as it kept a faithful following among lovers of classic, scenic names.
Glen's appeal lies in its calm, scenic meaning and its easy, classic sound, fitting beside other nature-rooted names like Heath, Dale, and Forrest. It is gentle and dependable, a name that suits a quiet soul. The recorded variant Glenn offers the doubled-consonant spelling favored by many earlier bearers, giving parents a choice between a streamlined and a more traditional look for this peaceful, evergreen name.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Glen
US Popularity History (2000–2003)
Annual US births named Glen by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 217 boys named Glen (boy rank #765 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2003, ranked #970 for boys (166 US births). That's 205 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glenn | From The Valley | Male | Celtic |
Looking for names like Glen?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Glen to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Glen against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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