The origin of the names, Loser and Leuser, are obscure. One source informs that Leuser is a Gayo word meaning place where animals go to die. Local folk lore provides a not-unrelated story: a Dutch officer was hunting deer on the Leuser Range in colonial times and accidentally shot his hunting partner on the Loser peak. The porters, accompanying the party, used the Gayo word, los, meaning dead, to describe the fate of the partner.