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Omoro
How to Pronounce Omoro
Pronounced oh-MOR-oh /oʊˈmɔːr.oʊ/Medium
Meaning: Omoro is best known in the United States as the name of Omoro Kinte, the Mandinka father of Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley's novel and television saga Roots (1976-77); it has a West African, Mandinka-region sound, but no single fixed dictionary meaning is documented, so it is best read as a literary and heritage-inspired name.Low
Popularity in the U.S. · SSA data
U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880–present). Pink marker = peak year.
SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.
History & Origin
Omoro carries a West African, Mandinka-region sound and is most widely recognized as the name of Omoro Kinte, father of the enslaved protagonist Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley's Roots. No single fixed independent meaning is documented for the name itself, so it is honestly treated here as a heritage and literary name rather than assigned an invented gloss.
Omoro was never common in the United States, given to about nineteen boys at its 1977 peak and to only thirty-eight total across a brief run from 1977 to 1979, closely tracking the cultural moment of Roots' broadcast.
Variations
Nicknames
Famous Bearers
- ★Omoro Kinte (fictional)The father of Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley's novel and television saga Roots.
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Frequently Asked
What does the name Omoro mean?
No single fixed meaning is documented; it carries a West African, Mandinka-region sound and is best known as a name from Alex Haley's Roots.
How do you pronounce Omoro?
It is said oh-MOR-oh /oʊˈmɔːr.oʊ/, three syllables with the stress on the second.
Is Omoro a boy or girl name?
Omoro is used as a boy's name.
How popular is Omoro?
It has always been rare in the United States, appearing only briefly in the late 1970s around the broadcast of Roots.