--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Lee Goldberg <leybl_goldberg@...>
wrote:

>
> Does the name "Leifr" mean 'lion' in Old Norse? (If not, how do you

say 'lion'?) 

>  
> I have a personal interest in this question: my Yiddish name,

"Leybl" means 'lion'.

The Old Norse word for lion was 'léon' (later spelling 'ljón').
Sometimes the Latin nominative form, 'léo', was used instead.

http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/png/oi_cleasbyvigfusson/b0384.png

The name 'Leifr', and its female equivalent 'Leif', are related to the
verb 'leifa' "to leave, relinquish, bequeath", and meant something
like "heir, inheritor". It probably began as a shortened form of such
compound names as Hjörleifr "sword-heir", Ásleif "god-heir". Another
famous name where -leifr appears is the second element is Óláfr (which
has the alternate form Áleifr), "ancestor-heir". In Óláfr the second
element was reduced due to its being in an unstressed position in the
word.