Comments for the name Gilead

The Republic of Gilead is the dystopian society in the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

This isn't exactly a famous bearer, but there is an old Negro spiritual entitled "There Is A Balm In Gilead". The chorus goes:

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul.

From Jeremiah 8:22: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?"

This is a relatively famous Bible verse referenced in the African American spiritual "There Is a Balm in Gilead" and in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" ("Is there, is there balm in Gilead? -- tell me truly, I implore"). The phrase "balm in Gilead" is a metaphor for hope, or for redemption through God.