Etymology
The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa and Kiinyaa which mean "God's resting place" in all three languages.
In the 19th Century, the German explorer, Ludwig Krapf, recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia believed by some to be a corruption of the Kamba version. Others however say that this was on the contrary a very precise notation of the correct African pronunciation /ˈkɛnjə/. In any case, the name was for a long time pronounced by colonial-heritage Europeans as /ˈkiːnjə/. The European pronunciation has been abandoned in modern times, in favor of the African version.
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“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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