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Girl or boy · Kikuyu
Kenyatta
Say it: ken-YAH-tah
Meaning
From the surname of Jomo Kenyatta, first president of Kenya, which he took from kinyata, a Kikuyu beaded belt.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Adopted as a first name in the 1960s and 1970s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1970s
In the United States
- 7,414 babies given this name since 1961
- At its height in 1975, about 1 in 6,700 girls
- 14 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.