Swahili name meanings and other facts

Swahili name meanings and other facts


Just some stuff I found out.


I was interested to find out what the Lion King names mean, I did after looking through books and the internet, I also found out some other cool facts.


Simba means lion


Nala means gift


Sarabi mean mirage


Kopa (Simab's son in a book series) means heart


Rafiki means friend


Pumbaa means stunned or slow wittied


Shenzi means savage


Banzai means skulk or lurk


Kovu means scar


Zira means hate (Originaly she was going to be called Bianca!)


Nuka means stink


Vitani was originally going to be called Shetani which means devil.


All other names are real Swahili names.


Rafiki's song 'Asante sana, squash banana, we we nuga, mi mi apana' means 'thank you very much, squash banana, your a baboon and i'm not'


Some original Lion King characters were a lion cub named 'Mee-Too' a fox and a Rhino. Sarafina was also more of an important character having more lines.


Simba's great grandfather is named 'Mohatu'


The lyrics in Hakuna Matata are 'when I was a young warthog' but originaly they were going to be 'when I was a young Meerkat'


 


There you go.






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Guest
Guest
October 16, 2015
Kovu also means "a metal" in Czech. Also, Vitani is the Swahili for "ducks", "linens", and "flax".

June 04, 2015
i don't have one
hi i just wanted to say that the swahili language are very similar to arabic language
like sarabi in arabic are sarab
and rafiki mean friend in arabic too
and the last name is Shetani is mean devil in arabic
that's what i wanted to say
see ya :)

September 25, 2013
Just to point out-

The actual lyrics are 'Asante sana squash banana, wewe nugu, mimi hapana'

Wewe and mimi are not 'we we' and 'mi mi'

Hapana, not apana

The literal meaning is 'Thanks much squash banana, you baboon, me there is not'


Nala does not mean gift, for heaven's sake. Gift is 'zawadi'. Nala means beloved

The Swahili word for devil is Satani, not Shetani

And actually, Howlra, taka means want. Kiara means nothing in Swahili

-speaking as a Swahili student living in Africa for six years

Tomatoman
Tomatoma
n
January 15, 2013
I didn't find anyghing about Kiara, but Kihara meens Diarrhea in Swahili, I'm just saying!

Taya
Taya
November 25, 2012
Simba actually means "Power"

August 09, 2012
Global Moderator Usa Female
Kiara in Swahili means 'Feet'

Cardinal11
Cardinal
11
August 09, 2012
Kiara in Italian and Irish (which I am both) means Bright.

Iluvlionking
Iluvlion
king
July 18, 2012
actually, Pumbaa means thoughtless. not being rude, just sayin'.;)

October 29, 2011
Usa
actually,vitani means battle,kopa means borrow,taka means to,ahadi means promise,uru means diamonds,pumbaa means thoughtless,kiara means partridge,shenzi means barbrous,tama means lust,and tojo means incision

October 18, 2011
Usa
a few things i want to say-
1.im not perfectly sure about this but i believe Vita means 'war' and Ni means 'I am' Put them together and the word is Vitani. So, Vitani's name means 'I am war'
2. If you listen closely to the characters in SP they might call Vitani by her original name, Shetani. I haven't heard this so far so I can't give you any tips on where to listen for it. You'll have to find it on your own.
3. in the original script, there were no Outsiders. Just Zira, known as Binaci at the time, Kovu, who at the time was Scar's son, and the three hyenas. It was changed for various reasons, some of them VERY obvious.

September 25, 2011
Usa
Cool article, I always knew the names but I never knew the words in Rafiki's song. I assumed it would be something funny lol

Actually Vitani means "War God", but she was originaly called "Shetani" which does mean satan.
(Disney said that they thought it might seem too dark to name a kid satan and that it would start a lot of trouble with the viewers)

July 01, 2011
"Mu-e-two" and is spelled "Mheetu". Also, you have "Simab". Cool stuff though!

May 14, 2011
Usa Female
AppleDash>You
It's pronounced Me-choo I believe

March 09, 2010
Usa Female
Alaskan Spirits Omega
Simba means BABY lion

November 17, 2009
Uk
kiara's name meens dark in welsh i think

April 25, 2009
Uk
tama mends truely

February 19, 2009
Uk
vitani means ducks! and nala has no meaning in swahili

January 05, 2009
Usa
Hey i typed up Nala and Banzi in a Swahili to English translater and it said that they weren't words. Now i'm not doubting you or anything, but what website did you go to?:icon310:

January 05, 2009
Usa
Ya the way they actually did research to actually come up with the characters name's was really kool. It also kinda describes them. :P

Guest
Guest
July 07, 2008
No, Nala means gift, pureperfectblood was right. Kiara, i checked on, and it's actually an irish word meaning small or dark. Even Disney admitted, but why an irish name for a lion cub? But Kiara could possibly be a name the Swahili people use, because it's also used as a name in different nations.

October 18, 2007
Bulgaria Female
Thanks for telling me that! I didn't know all of their
meanings. (i didn't know the hyaenas names meanings)

March 30, 2007
Great article mate! I learnt stuff

Guest
Guest
February 26, 2007
that was a really great artical but whatdoes kiara mean?

Guest
Guest
February 06, 2007
Wow!Nice research.

December 09, 2006
Usa
VERY nice!!! Thanks for writing this, I earned some things -
Rafiki's Song was always unclear to me, but now I get it!

November 19, 2006
Uk Male
Several of the names mean several things

October 14, 2006
Singapore Male
Great! Thanx!

*kapu*
*kapu*
August 21, 2006
Great article!! I love Rafiki's little song! I knew most of the names, I think they are so cool ,but I didn't know Kovu means scar. That was pretty clever:cool:

August 01, 2006
Uk Female
cool article though, i've been wanting to learn all of what their names mean.

August 01, 2006
Uk Female
yea, sarafina means bright star. but i don't think nala means queen.

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