The Bani Utbah (Arabic: بني عتبة banī ʿUtbah) is a tribe, or tribal federation of Arab clans, which originated from the central Arabian region of Najd and is often associated to the larger confederation of tribes, known as the 'Anizzah . The tribe is thought to have been formed when a group of disparate clans migrated from Najd to the Persian Gulf coast sometime in the late seventeenth century. Utub (Arabic: العتوب ʿutūb) is the plural form, while the singular form is Utbi (Arabic: العتبي al-ʿUtbī ). The current ruling families of Bahrain and Kuwait trace their origins back to the tribe. The etymological origin of the tribe's name is thought be derived from the Arabic "atab", meaning "wanderer", referring to their migration to the Persian Gulf area in 1744.