Kenyans not named Kiplagatchirchirtanuikoech

Guess what tribe all thos people with "similar" names are from. Now, what is your take on Angweny? Do you think he is from the same tribe?

Kenyan names depend on the tribe. I believe in one tribe your first name is your father's last name and your last name describes your birth....or something like that.

Alan

calcuttaa wrote:

I heard that Kenyans surnames come from the place they are born,for example Kiprono may mean 'born on the veranda' or 'born in the morning'.

When Henry Rono started to make the scene, I distinctly remembered an announcer saying that Rono meant "where beer is being brewed". Now he may have been pulling our leg, but this is long before other well-known facts of Mr Rono's life became public knowledge.

And who was it, Ismael Kirui and Peter Koech were brothers? That one has always confused me.

Name Game wrote:

calcuttaa wrote:

You should take an anthropology class to sort out your sheltered life

It is simply logic. Should we all be named Bob Smith?

How would an anthropolgy class help with the fact that the system for naming babies in parts of Kenya is stupid?

You should check out Icelandic names!

Erbli wrote:

[quote]Name Game wrote (in part):

1) It doesn't say "confuse" anywhere in the post. I think it is stupid that they have so many people named some variation of Paul - Kip - Rono - Lagat.

2) You kind of proved my point for me. Smith, Jones and Williams are indeed popular Anglo Saxon names ... and yet how many top distance runners do we know from the same era that are named that?

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So if they quit using those "stupid" Kenyan [African] names, things would be okay?

You are good with Smith, Jones, Williams, Sanichesky, and Bush...you just have trouble with...hmmm, Kenyan names.

As for the Anglo-Saxon names. is there maybe a slight difference in the size of the sample pool? Maybe several hundred million Anglo-Saxons, but not quite so many Kenyans?"""""

So if they quit using those "stupid" Kenyan [African] names, things would be okay"""" Did u mean if they stop using "STUPID AMERICAN NAMES" or Kenyan Names? Like Bush,Rat,Stone,Livingstone.....WTF!!!

The fact that a lot of Kenyans have the same name, is not something strange from their Country, but a mistake from our culture. In fact, normally THEIR FAMILY NAME is another. In Kenya, there is a Family Name ; then everybody has normally 2 given names, one English (John, Paul, Peter etc...), another in their language (Kosgei, Korir, Rono, Tanui, Cheruiyot etc.).

But, because is easier for western people to use these simple names, we transform their Kenyan given name in their family name.

This fact provokes a lot of problems when athletes, for example, have to go with their Passport to take a ticket for flying. A lot of times, the names on their ticket is different from the official name in the passport.

I give you some example from my athletes :

David Makori is David Makori OMITI (2:08:48 in Marathon)

Paul Kosgei is Paul Kosgei MALAKWEN (59:07 HM)

Christopher Koskei is Christopher Koskei CHERONO (WCh 99)

Ronald Kipchumba is Ronald Kipchumba RUTO (WJCh 3000st)

Rita Jeptoo is Rita Jeptoo SITIENEI (winner in Boston)

For a girl, Chep or Jep means "daughter of", for boys the same is with Chep or Kip.

If you go to IAAF site for looking the lists, you can see that, now, statisticians prefer to add a thirs name to the normal kenyan names, in order to distinguish runners having the same "kenyan given" name.

To the original poster many of the names are similar because so many of the runners come from a small group of tribes.

Mainly the Nandi (Kip Keino), Kipsigi, Marakwet (Moses Kiptanui and cousins Richard Chelimo+Ismael Kirui), Elgeyo and Tugen (Paul Tergat) from the Rift Valley area. Indeed many athletes are from the same extended family or clan although the naming convention can be different so Stephen Cherono and Christopher Koskei are actually brothers. Renato has explained the Kip/Jep prefix used by these groups.

There are a few runners from other tribes. For example, Tecla Lorupe is a Pokot from North Western Kenya, Paul Ereng is a Turkana from northern Kenya, Yobes Ondieki a Kisii from western kenya, Billy Konchellah a Maasai from southern kenya and Cosmas Ndeti (and his cousin Benson Masya) are kambas from eastern kenya.

The biggest non rift valley tribe for running are the kikuyu of central kenya; John Ngugi (and his brother James Kamau), Julius Kariuki, Douglas Wakihuri etc. Angwenyi is a kikuyu name.

Angwenyi is a Kisii name.

Usher wrote:

When Henry Rono started to make the scene, I distinctly remembered an announcer saying that Rono meant "where beer is being brewed".

That's Komen.

Follow the links.

Kipkorir--born shortly before dawn

Kipkoech--born at dawn

Kimutai--born in mid-morning

Kibet--born at midday

Kiplagat (Kiplangat)--born at sunset

Kipkirui--born shortly after dark

Kipkemboi--born at night

Kipngetich--born when cows are taken to pasture after morning milking

Kiprotich--born when cattle are brought home for evening milking

Kipngeno--born when goats are waking up

Kiprono--born when sheep or goats are brought into the house in the evening

Kipkeino--born when sheep or goats are being milked (i.e. when cows milk is short)

Kiplimo--born among grazing cattle

Kipngeny--born when cattle are at a salt lick

Kipkosgei--born after a long labor, or a long interval between children

Kipchirchir--born in a hurry, after short labor

Kiptanui--fainted, failed to cry or breathe at birth

Kipketer--born on the verandah

Kipchoge--born near the grain storage bin

Kipsang--born outdoors

Kipkurgat--born by the door

Kibitok--born on the fathers side of the hut, not the mothers

Kiptoo--born when visitors are around

Kiptum--born during circumcision ceremonies

Kimaiyo--born when beer is being brewed or drunk

Komen--born when beer is being brewed or drunk

Kipruto--born away from home, on safari

Kipchumba--born near white men, i.e. in a hospital, in a town, on a white-owned farm

Kipkemei--born during a drought

Kiprugut--born during a famine

Kiptalam--born during an infestation of locusts

Kipsigei--born on his own (i.e. the mother had no help)

Cheruiyot (male only)--born when everyone was asleep

Kitur--born after parents had begun to despair of having a child

Kigen--a long-awaited son (usually born after several daughters)

Usher wrote:

When Henry Rono started to make the scene, I distinctly remembered an announcer saying that Rono meant "where beer is being brewed".

malmo wrote:

That's Komen.

I think it's Chumbawamba.

>>

So, let me see if I have this right. Name Game is pissed because the societal system of naming babies in Kenya makes it too hard for him to follow track and field? Well, hell, Kenya really needs to do something about that! We can't have that.

And those darned Asians, too. Is it Zhang Ziyi or Ziyi Zhang? Why don't they just name people like we do here? Sheesh.

Oh, and the Muslims? What is with all these gutterals in their names, Muqta Al-Sadr Al-Elamein, what the hell?

Why the hell did George Foreman name all his kids George- I can't keep them straight!

Jeez, this is one stupid thread, given that Kenya's system is completely comprehensible to anyone from Kenya. And yeah, why the hell did I post?

while i was in south africa i met at least 50 people from kenya and NONE of them had "kip" "lagat" or "chirchir" in their names. they had surnames like nambili, maya, nyungesa, aytsiaya...ect it just depends what tribe they are from and whet part of the country.

Name Game wrote:

I know there is some reason for it, but it makes it hard to follow the progress of Kenyans when years ago we had ...

Wow, genius. You want to attack another culture, when I am absolutely certain, and without knowing your name, that you have no idea what your own name probably means in its old, dead language origin.

Why don't you learn that, and see if you can figure out your own family history? My guess is your last name is probably idiot, in some form or another.

Just a thought.

The fact remains that kenyans names are true nature of our culture, who care what you think? Weather kip...kip ..kip...or koech..kiptanui...they still kick ass in running, and untill you go to kenya and learn how naming comes from, bother less.

Must be a weird African thing, right?

Not really. Many societies have a surprisingly small array of common or same-sounding names, first and last.

Lee, in China

Steve, Dave, Bob, in America

Mc_____, in Ireland and Scotland (means "from," I think)

"-stein", for Jews of German origin; "-ov," "-ow," and "-off" for Jews from Poland

In the Scandinavian countries, many last names end with "-son" or "--ssen". I'm sure I read something about Iceland which claimed that half the people there have the same last name.

Some countries--with America as an extreme example--have a wider variety of ethnic groups than others, which obviously tends to diversify names. Smaller, more isolated and/or tribe- and clan-based societies tend to have less diversity.

That is correct about the names meaning when they were born. They were not really surnames in the sense of their father's name. This is for the Kalenjin people of Kenya such as Nandi. They usually do have other names, but when porting to western format, the last name goes for the surname instead of the family name and sometimes the Kip- gets left off.

Kiplagat - born in the evening at almost supper time 6pm-9pm

Kipkemboi - born in the middle of the night 10pm-3am

Kipkoech - born just before dawn 4am-6am

Kipchirchir - born disturbed, not calm, baby was kicking or moving arms.

Kiprono - not really a time, but love or like the parents to use the name

Other common Nandi names are Cheruiyot.

For Nandi girls, it is the same except Jep- or Chep- prefix instead of Kip- such as Chepchirchir.

The Kenyan surnames that are different are from different tribes such as Luo (names like Odinga, Obama), Kikuyu, or Maasai, for example.