Glirhuin's dates are very uncertain, and all we know for sure was that he made a song about the Stone of the Hapless, so he must have been alive after its erection in I 499. He may have lived some time after the Stone was raised, but at most a few decades afterward, as his words included a prophecy of events that would unfold less than a century later.

Given that Glirhuin was a poet and maker of songs, then the glir- element of his name is surely glír, 'song, poem'. Huin is less certain, having several possible meanings, with none seeming particularly relevant (it can mean 'hearts' for example, or be the plural form of the pronoun 'he'). There may be a connection with the word hô 'speak' (as apparently in Huorn) though this is necessarily speculative.