Onyango

Syllable breakdown

Name meaning and origin

Origin

Luo (Kenya, Tanzania)

Meaning

a Luo masculine name given to boys born around dawn or sunrise, when the world is transitioning from night to day, from the Luo nyango meaning dawn or the first light; the liminal moment of dawn — neither night nor day, the time of transition and emergence — is captured in names like Onyango as a birth record of that precise moment of arrival; Onyango is one of the most common and recognisable Luo masculine names in Kenya and has achieved international recognition through Barack Obama Sr., whose birth name was Hussein Onyango Obama, making Onyango a name known to readers worldwide through Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father; the name is widely used throughout the Luo community in Nyanza Province, Nairobi, and Luo diaspora communities internationally

Gender

male

Also spelled

Anyango, Onyago