The Gikuyu as a tribe is a fairly recent amalgam of mostly immigrant peoples, one that has somehow grown not through force of arms, but a policy of assimilating new ideas, people and practices from almost anywhere. The names we use reflect this policy as well as the different immigration waves that brought them and Nyeri is one of the most recent examples.

Some of the significant influences are:

1. Antiquity - names that are shared by many African peoples and refer to a past so far back that the meanings have been largely lost. These include: Maina, Mwangi, Kimaru, Muchiri, Wacici, Wariua - the last 3 are traceable to ancient Egypt

2. Dorobo/Athi influence (common in Kiambu/Muranga/Mukurweini) - names like Chege, Muturi, Gichuki, Kinyua, Mbugua, Mburu, Mugo (most names associated with the professions of iron making, bee keeping, hunting, magic and medicine).

3. Kamba influence - Muchoki, Mwathi, Thiaka, Mumbi, most Women clan names, even the name Gikuyu. These are the progenitors of the first Gikuyu settlers in Muranga.

4. Masai influence (common in Nyeri) - Wangombe, Mureithi, Nderitu, Ngare, Nyokabi, Ngatia, Munyi (most names related to cattle keeping and warfare)

5. Meru/Embu/Mbeere influence - Most animal totem names - Njoka, Njue, Nyaga - (names related to agriculture and homesteading) Murimi/ Karimi, Wanja, Wahome, Kimathi)

6. Wazungu/Asian influence----those are recent and fairly obvious.

The Gikuyu people also deliberately celebrated their status as immigrant people through the names they gave, especially to girls. Wandia, Wamaitha, Nyaguthii, Waruguru, Waithiegeni, Waitherero, Nyaikamba, Nyakabete, Wagaaki etc are all names denoting origin outside Gikuyuland

Agikuyu are actually closer to Aembu than Ameru.

Once again admin may have to start a thread on Gikuyu naming systems.This one was originally Governor Kahiga's

Ooops, my bad. It is a slow news afternoon.

Things will get more exciting when Baba gets here

No more language posts.

The Bantus around Mt Kenya were certainly one people until recent millenia and that mountain and poor transcom in the old days meant that people who moved to settle elsewhere easily lost touch with their origins and soon became another community picking new dialects and accents.
Even among the Gìkùyù who grew up on the slopes you can tell which county one hails from.

There is a story I heard from old nyerians. Kibaki was a nickname for the father of ubakoo. Coz he used to trade in snuff from Meru (where he originated - hence, as some speculate, why Meru benefited so much in prev. presidency)

Haiya! Is this like recent? After Gov. Gakuru's?

100 yrs too recent. Migrations were self preservation strategies / natural reaction to epidemics, war and famine. These were cut short when mzungu arrived. Hence last notable migrations could have occurred 200yrs ago. That said, Akamba, Agikuyu and Ameru have fairly recent common ancestry. But they left their 'common' home at different times, or dispersed in different directions thus each encounterd different environment, mixed with different peoples along the way, etc, hence the current difference in laguage/accent.

@wakanyugi, I think the case of the lady you quoted might have been an isolated case. In fact such movements have happened throughout the ages. Till about the time mzungu came, the mt kenya communities lived just outside the forest belt. Gikuyus from nyeri could move 'along the belt' to meru side and vice versa. That's why these communities were already united by the time mzungu came. And any large migration 100yrs ago would have been documented. It would also have been captured by living memory. That's why I assume 200 years back for last major movement

Upto 200 years history will have been passed down generations

Many Kafete families have history of their homes in Murang'a. Reading through biographies of some of their prominent sons(Njenga Karume, John Gatu, Ngugi wa Thiong'o) you can see families know where their forefathers were born and their migration route