Leod's name is represented in Scottish Gaelic as "Leòd". This name is a Gaelic form of the Old Norse "Ljótr", meaning "ugly". Matheson stated that this Norse name was rare in both Scandinavia and Iceland. He noted that in Scotland it was peculiar to the MacLeods, though it is almost never used within the clan. Matheson speculated that Leod's great-grandfather would have likely flourished at about the same time as Olvir Rosta was supposedly exiled to the Outer Hebrides. Matheson went even further and proposed that Leod's great-grandfather was in fact Olvir Rosta—a character from the mediaeval "Orkneyinga saga". Matheson noted that while the name "Ljótr" is rare, Olvir Rosta's maternal grandfather appears in the saga as "Ljótr níðingr" ('Ljótr Villain'). In Matheson's opinion, since the Gaelic-language genealogies are inconsistent in the generations further back than Leod's great-grandfather, this may show that the man was a newcomer in the area. Sellar, however, rejected Matheson's proposal, commenting that such evidence was entirely circumstantial. Sellar stated that "Olvir" was not such a rare name; also, Olvir Rosta's genealogy and family within the saga (see above right) has no similarity with that recorded in the Gaelic-language genealogies relevant to Leod.