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Home › Baby Names Directory › Gottlieb

Gottlieb

♂ Boy

How to Pronounce Gottlieb

Pronounced GOT-leeb /ˈɡɒt.liːb/Medium

Meaning: Gottlieb is a German name meaning 'God's love', from Gott, 'God', and lieb/Liebe, 'love' or 'dear'. It was coined in the pietist era as a devotional name — a German counterpart to the Greek Theophilus, 'friend of God' — and came to America with German-speaking immigrants.Medium

In 30 seconds: Gottlieb is a German devotional name meaning 'God's love' (said 'GOT-leeb'). It came with German immigrants and faded as families assimilated in the early twentieth century.
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Origin MediumGerman
MeaningGottlieb is a German name meaning 'God's love', from Gott, 'God', and lieb/Liebe, 'love' or 'dear'. It was coined in the pietist era as a devotional name — a German counterpart to the Greek Theophilus, 'friend of God' — and came to America with German-speaking immigrants.
U.S. rank (1933)#3429 ↘ Falling
1933 U.S. births6 boys (0.00% of U.S. boys)
Peak year1915
Total births (all-time)≈ 320

Popularity in the U.S. · SSA data

peak 191518801933

U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880–present). Pink marker = peak year.

SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.

History & Origin

Gottlieb was born in the German pietist movement as a pious coinage, 'God's love', paralleling the Greek Theophilus and the Latin Amadeus, 'love of God'. German and German-Swiss immigrants carried it to the United States, where it appears in the record from the late nineteenth century.

Its American life was short: use fell away sharply as German-speaking families anglicized their names amid the assimilation pressures of the early twentieth century, and it had largely vanished by the nineteen-thirties. It reads now as a distinctly Old-World heritage name and has not revived.

Did you know? Gottlieb Daimler, the German engineer whose name lives on in Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, helped pioneer the automobile — a bearer whose given name literally means 'God's love'.
Overall data confidence 75%
References — Gottlieb — German 'God's love'; pietist devotional name; cf. Theophilus

Variations

GottlobTheophilus

Nicknames

GottLieb

Famous Bearers

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If you like Gottlieb…

Theophilus— the Greek equivalent, also meaning love of God
Immanuel— a fellow devotional name, 'God with us'
Reinhold— another German immigrant-era masculine name
Wilhelm— a like Old-World German name of the same cohort

Explore names like Gottlieb

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Frequently Asked

What does the name Gottlieb mean?

Gottlieb is a German devotional name meaning 'God's love', from Gott ('God') and Liebe ('love').

How do you pronounce Gottlieb?

It's said GOT-leeb /ˈɡɒt.liːb/ — two syllables, stress on the first.

Is Gottlieb a boy or girl name?

Gottlieb is used as a boy's name.

How popular is Gottlieb?

Gottlieb is very rare in the U.S. now, a German immigrant name most seen before the nineteen-thirties.

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