Swahili boy names
Swahili is a Bantu language that spent a thousand years on the receiving end of the monsoon trade, and its names show it: a Bantu grammar wrapped around an enormous stock of Arabic vocabulary. Two things on this page make that contact history concrete — a full set of weekday names, and the rule that puts a vowel on the end of every Arabic name that arrives without one.
Names for the day of the week
The Swahili week is counted forward from Friday. Ijumaa is Friday, from Arabic al-jum'a, the gathering; Saturday is then Jumamosi, week-one, Sunday Jumapili, week-two, Monday Jumatatu, Tuesday Jumanne, Wednesday Jumatano. Thursday breaks the pattern and keeps its Arabic name whole, Alhamisi. A child born on one of those days may simply be given the day, and three of them are common enough to be ordinary names in Tanzania and Kenya.
- JumaJOO-mahSwahili
Born on a Friday, the day the town is already assembled for prayer. Much the commonest of the three, and even more frequent as a surname.
- Jumannejoo-MAHN-nehSwahili
Born on a Tuesday. The name is arithmetic: juma, a week, plus nne, four. The doubled n is held, not skipped.
- Hamisihah-MEE-seeSwahili
Born on a Thursday, from Alhamisi — Arabic al-khamis, "the fifth", definite article and all.
Traditional Swahili word-names
These are ordinary Swahili nouns pressed into service as names, and a Swahili speaker hears the meaning without effort. Several of the words themselves came in from Arabic centuries ago and have been thoroughly naturalised since — the distinction that matters here is that these are Swahili vocabulary, not imported personal names.
- SimbaSEEM-bahSwahili
Lion, and by extension a brave or formidable man. Native Bantu vocabulary, and the one Swahili word most English speakers already know.
- Tumainitoo-mah-EE-neeSwahili
Hope; trust, confidence. Four syllables and a genuinely Bantu root.
- Barakabah-RAH-kahSwahili
Blessing, divine favour. From Arabic baraka, whose Semitic root is shared with Hebrew berakhah; an everyday Swahili noun now.
- Farajifah-RAH-jeeSwahili
Consolation — relief that arrives after hardship, not happiness in general.
- Fadhilifah-THEE-leeSwahili
Kindness; a favour, a good turn done for someone. The dh is the th of "this".
- Jabarijah-BAH-reeSwahili
Mighty, valiant, brave. Well established in African American use as well as on the coast.
- TajiTAH-jeeSwahili
Crown. Two syllables, and the same word that sits inside the Taj Mahal.
- Mbwanam-BWAH-nahSwahili
Sir, master, lord. Bwana with the m- prefix Swahili puts on nouns denoting people; the opening m is a hummed beat of its own.
- Msafirim-sah-FEE-reeSwahili
Traveller, voyager — the same m- prefix again, on the word behind safari.
- Nassoronah-SOH-rohSwahili
Victory; help and support. The coastal form of Arabic Nasr.
- Zuberizoo-BEH-reeSwahili
Traditionally glossed as strong or firm. The Swahili form of the early Muslim name Zubayr.
Arabic names in Swahili dress
A Swahili syllable ends in a vowel. An Arabic name that ends in a consonant therefore collects one on the way in, and the result is a distinct coastal set: Hasan becomes Hasani, Rashid becomes Rashidi, Sulayman becomes Selemani, Dawud becomes Daudi. Nobody engineered this. It is simply what the language does to a word it has decided to keep.
- HasanHAH-sanArabic
Handsome, good, fine — from a root in which good and beautiful are the same word.
- Hasanihah-SAH-neeSwahili
The same name with the coastal vowel on the end. Among the commonest men's names on the Swahili coast.
- Rashidirah-SHEE-deeSwahili
Rightly guided; sound in judgement. From Arabic Rashid, the participle of a verb meaning to take the right road.
- Salehesah-LEH-hehSwahili
Upright, virtuous, morally sound. Arabic Salih, resurfaced with two open e vowels.
- Selemaniseh-leh-MAH-neeSwahili
Peaceful — the Swahili Solomon, by way of Arabic Sulayman.
- Daudidah-OO-deeSwahili
Beloved. The Swahili David, from Arabic Dawud rather than direct from Hebrew.
- Bakaribah-KAH-reeSwahili
From Arabic Bakr, whose root carries the sense of first and early. Bakr has an awkward final cluster; Swahili resolves it into three clean syllables.
- Omarioh-MAH-reeSwahili
Flourishing, long-lived. The coastal Umar, and a fixture in Tanzania.
- IssaEE-sahSwahili
The Arabic and Swahili name of Jesus, used by Muslim families as an ordinary given name.
- MusaMOO-sahArabic
The Arabic Moses — drawn out of the water, or child of, depending on which etymology you follow.
- Shabanishah-BAH-neeSwahili
Born in Sha'ban, the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. A date rather than a compliment.
- YusufYOO-sufArabic
He will add; may God increase. Joseph, and one of the most used names on the coast.
- YahyaYAH-yahArabic
The Arabic name of John the Baptist, long associated with life.
- Ibrahimib-rah-HEEMArabic
Father of a multitude. Abraham, kept in its Arabic shape from Lamu to Kilwa.
- KhalidKHAH-lidArabic
Eternal, undying. One of the names that travels unaltered because it already ends comfortably.
- Aziza-ZEEZArabic
Mighty and powerful; also dear, beloved, precious. Both senses are live.
How Swahili naming works
Swahili grew up on a strip of coast and islands running from Mogadishu down through Lamu, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilwa, where the monsoon winds brought traders from Arabia, the Gulf, the Hadhramaut and Gujarat for half the year and took them home again for the other half. The language stayed Bantu — the noun classes, the verb, the grammar are all Bantu, and Mbwana and Msafiri show the machinery working — but the vocabulary filled up with Arabic, and the personal names filled up faster than anything else. The result is that most Swahili men carry a name of Arabic origin pronounced by Bantu rules. That is not a dilution of the tradition; it is the tradition, and it is a thousand years old.
Two practical points for anyone using these names outside East Africa. First, stress is almost always on the second-to-last syllable, without exception worth worrying about: hah-SAH-nee, bah-KAH-ree, oh-MAH-ree. Get that one rule right and you will pronounce nearly every name on this page correctly. Second, Swahili families commonly pass a father's given name down as the child's second name rather than using an inherited surname, which is why Juma, Hamisi and Bakari appear in registers and team sheets as often in second position as in first. It also explains why Swahili names cluster: one Friday birth in one generation can produce a whole line of Jumas in the next. The rest of the continent is covered on our African names page, and the wider set of origins on the origins index.