In contrast to Matheson's opinion about the name "Ljótr", the 20th-century historian A. Morrison was of the opinion that the name may not be as rare as some people have thought. Morrison noted that the 19th century antiquary F.W.L. Thomas considered another saga character to be an eponymous ancestor of the MacLeods—this character was Ljótólfr, who would have lived on Lewis about a century before Leod's time. Morrison considered it possible that Leod's name could have ultimately originated from that of Ljótólfr's; however, while he considered it possible that Ljótólfr could have been an ancestor of Leod, he did not think it could have been in the male-line.