Hlieb
A Slavic name carrying the sense "heir of god". Barely 450 people in Poland go by it, all of them male, so most Poles have never met a Hlieb.
Hlieb Pronunciation
Hlieb is pronounced KHLYEP (/xljɛp/).
What Hlieb means
Where Hlieb comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hlieb comes from the Slavic world of names, the eastern form of the name Poles more often meet as Gleb. Its given meaning is plain enough: "heir of god," or in Polish "syn boży." The word says less about what a child does than about whom the child is said to belong to.
History gives the name a firm anchor. Gleb, son of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, was killed in 1015 together with his brother Boris. The two became among the earliest saints venerated in the lands of Rus, and their cult spread widely across the Slavic east. Hlieb is that same name, spelled as it sounds east of the Bug.
On a school register in the eastern borderlands, "Hlieb" still turns up beside more familiar forms. The sense holds steady across the centuries of its use: an heir, said to belong to god.
How many people are named Hlieb
1 in 46812 men in Poland is named Hlieb. 456 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1386 among male names.
Hlieb's popularity over time
2 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1596 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024. Still the #1386 name among living men, even as it slips to #1596 among newborns.