You say Munyao, I say Mutiso ... Stop the Confusion!

El Keniano wrote:

Nearly 60 years of Kenyans competing internationally. You'd think the world's media would've come to grips with Kenyan naming customs by now.

Alexander Mutiso Munyao - This is a typical Kenyan name where Alexander represents the given Christian (or Muslim in other cases) name. Mutiso is his given tribal name (from the Kamba tribe) and Munyao is his proper surname. Sometimes athletes choose to use their tribal name over their surname for practical reasons or to facilitate branding. This isn't a strange concept for western media. Brad Pitt's real name, for example, is William Bradley Pitt. Tiger Woods is Eldrick Tont Woods so "Tiger" isn't even his name, just a nickname.

The question is: why can't the media pick one name and stick with it? It can be confusing especially for international audiences who may not understand we're referring to the same athlete. A few other recent examples of random interchanging of names:

Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli (why is he now Kipkorir all of a sudden? This wasn't even necessary)

Lilian Kasait Rengeruk

Edward Zakayo Pingua

Stanley Waithaka Mburu

Mary Wacera Ngugi (now Ngugi-Cooper due to marriage)

Samuel Kibathi Wanjiru (wisely chosen to use his middle name)

a rose by any other wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

Nearly 60 years of Kenyans competing internationally. You'd think the world's media would've come to grips with Kenyan naming customs by now.

Alexander Mutiso Munyao - This is a typical Kenyan name where Alexander represents the given Christian (or Muslim in other cases) name. Mutiso is his given tribal name (from the Kamba tribe) and Munyao is his proper surname. Sometimes athletes choose to use their tribal name over their surname for practical reasons or to facilitate branding. This isn't a strange concept for western media. Brad Pitt's real name, for example, is William Bradley Pitt. Tiger Woods is Eldrick Tont Woods so "Tiger" isn't even his name, just a nickname.

The question is: why can't the media pick one name and stick with it? It can be confusing especially for international audiences who may not understand we're referring to the same athlete. A few other recent examples of random interchanging of names:

Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli (why is he now Kipkorir all of a sudden? This wasn't even necessary)

Lilian Kasait Rengeruk

Edward Zakayo Pingua

Stanley Waithaka Mburu

Mary Wacera Ngugi (now Ngugi-Cooper due to marriage)

Samuel Kibathi Wanjiru (wisely chosen to use his middle name)

Sucks but some media and fans will find Kenyan names foreign and somehow hard to differentiate. So the athletes should look into getting some publicity services to, at the very least, work to correct the errors by contacting the offenders.

If not then they'll just have to deal with it.