Jason Kottke in his blog kottke.org has come up with a map of the world with the name of countries and their literal meanings.
He used a number of sources such as Oxford Dictionaries and Online Etymology Dictionary to get the meaning for Kenya.
“Kenya is a shortened version of the Kikuyu name, Kirinyaga, a corruption of the Swahili kere nyaga, “Mountain of Whiteness.“
You can find what the names of other countries mean on this spreadsheet .
Meaning of names of selected African countries:
Somalia – land of Soma
Eritrea– land of the red sea
Sudan – country of blacks
Uganda– Land of the Ganda people
Zimbabwe – Stone enclosure
Benin – Land of argument
Nigeria – land of Niger river
Ghana – The King’s land
Chad – land of the large lake
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