Kuria names

First borns:(Abatangi)
Firstborns are important to every family hence their names must correspond to the greetings the mother or father would be greeted. Once one has a child he/she will be greeted by the name of his son or daughter. Wakuria have six names for firstborns. Chacha, Marwa and Mwita for boys and Bhoke, Robi and Gati for girls. If the first born is a boy, one of the three names Chacha, Mwita or Marwa is selected. The father now will be greeted ISACHACHA, ISAMWITA OR ISAMARWA. The mother will be greeted NYAMWITA, NYACHACHA OR NYAMWARA. If the first born is a girl the names available are Bhoke, Robi, Gati and greetings will be prefixed ISA OR NYA to the respective name. You will note that we don’t have greetings like nyaryoba, isamatinde because these are not names for firstborns. Note that a Kuria will be greeted by the name of the firstborn. When one get grandchildren then the greeting will change to nyakorochacha or nyakororobi, isakoromwita. The greetings are changed by the first born grandchildren names. If one was greeted isachacha and gets a first born grandchild called Robi his greeting will change from Isachacha to ISAKOROROBI.


Ancestor names (ichidonko)
Kuria also name their children after the names of the ancestors(Abhakoro). Such naming will occur if the wish of the dead grandfather or mother requested to be named a boy or girl. That is why we have mwita for both girls and boys. Some for sake of love one would like to name the ancestors as a sign that the ancestor has been reborn. A child can have two names one for obhotangi and another for endoko. My son is Chacha because he is a first born and he is callend Nyangoko a name after my grandfather. The other cause of naming ancestors will result when the child is sick or misfortunes come to a family and they seek omogabho/omoraguli to find out the problem. The omoraguli will advise to name a child an ancestor whose spirits have been troubled by the family. When naming the child, the family will be required to sacrifice (kumwensa) a goat or a cow depending on the wish of the spirits and the magnitude of the problem. Similarly names like Nyamohanga, Ryoba, Magaigwa, Nsato, Sabure, Wankuru, Ng’oina, Wanchoka, Mwikwabhe are named after the spirits. That is why when Kurias were baptized their native names were rejected because they were assumed to be associated with the spirits ( Evil spirits?).



In the next issue will explore names associated with EVENTS such names as Wanchara, Waisiko, Nkobha, Wambura etc.