Girma

"He has bloomed", related to abeba ("flower"). Borne by the marathon runner Abebe Bikila, the first Black African Olympic gold medallist.

From "alem" (the world) and "ayehu" (I have seen): in use, understood to mean "I have enjoyed life".

From alem ("world") + -u ("his"): "his world" — the child is the parents' whole world.

Amharic for "diamond".

"He has flourished" or "grown, germinated".

From berhan ("light") + -u ("his"): "his light".

Amharic for "orange" (the fruit). Borne by the opposition leader and judge Birtukan Mideksa.

Amharic for "joy, happiness".

Amharic for "paradise, garden", from Ge'ez ganat.

"(He is) their master, their lord" — the honorific plural, used as a mark of respect toward the child.

From Ge'ez hayl, "power, might, strength". Used chiefly in compounds — Haile Selassie ("power of the Trinity"), Haile Mariam ("power of Mary").

Amharic for "life".

"He has grown weighty" — from a verb for becoming heavy, understood figuratively: the child has come to be honoured and respected.

From qonjo ("beautiful"): "the beautiful one".

Amharic for "nobleman" or "aristocrat".

Amharic for "foundation" or "cornerstone", given with the hope the child will be a stable, reliable support to their family. Borne by Olympic gold medalist Meseret Defar.

Amharic for "freedom", a name resonant with Ethiopia's history of resisting colonization.

Amharic for "peace" (Ge'ez selam, cognate with Hebrew shalom and Arabic salaam).

"He has been renewed" or "reborn" — carrying a Christian sense of spiritual renewal.

From tesfa ("hope") + -ye ("my"): "my hope". So widely used one generation up that it was recorded as the single most common surname in Ethiopia in 2019.

Amharic for "patience".

Amharic for "the crown", from Ge'ez. Borne by Empress Zewditu, who ruled Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930 — the first woman to be head of an internationally recognised state in modern Africa.

Tamazight for "star". Amazigh names are frequently ordinary nouns used directly as personal names, rather than a separate naming vocabulary.

Fulfulde for "beloved", from the root "yiɗi" (to love) plus a suffix marking the human agent of the action.

Kikuyu for "the reincarnated one", traditionally given when a child is believed to carry the spirit of a deceased relative.

"The one who returns" — the male counterpart to Njoki, in the same reincarnation-naming tradition as the existing Kariuki: given when a child is believed to carry back a departed relative's spirit, often a grandfather's name passed to a grandson.

From Dholuo "luoch" (mist).

Maa for "the polite one".

Often glossed as "the blessed one" in Maa. We have found this only in online name lists, not in a dictionary or a study of Maasai names.

Malagasy for "pillar".