Akello

Syllable breakdown

Name meaning and origin

Origin

Luo (Kenya, Uganda)

Meaning

a Luo and Acholi feminine name meaning she followed or she came after, from the Luo root kelo (to follow, to come after) — given to a girl born immediately after another child, indicating that she is the child who followed her older sibling into the world; the Luo and Acholi birth-circumstance naming tradition records not only the time of birth but the position in the birth sequence and the circumstances surrounding the arrival; Akello is particularly common among the Acholi people of northern Uganda as well as among Luo speakers in Kenya, reflecting the shared Nilotic heritage of these communities; the name gained wide recognition through Grace Akello, the Ugandan politician and Women's Affairs minister, and through its appearance in the writing of Ugandan poet Okot p'Bitek, whose Song of Lawino brought Acholi oral tradition to world literary attention

Gender

female

Also spelled

Akelo, Achelo