The name Kimana is a girl's name of Native American origin meaning "butterfly". Kimana and is often added to lists like American Names for Girls and discussed in our forums with posts like "Quick Question Thread?!".
Find other names based on Kimana using our baby name generator.
Kimana in Blog Posts
Kimana in the Forums
Daily Delivery
Exclusive Nameberry picks, direct to you.
I like this name a great deal; it's very pretty and was on my shortlist for a little bit. However, anyone considering it should be aware that it DOESN'T mean 'butterfly' in Shoshone as Nameberry and many other name sites list (and I rather wish they would update this listing along with a couple others). The Shoshone word for butterfly is 'aipputoonkih' - a rather drastic departure! I know because I went out of my way to email a linguist who studied Native languages, and that's what she told me. The word 'kimama' is a variant of 'kimimela,' which IS the Lakota Sioux word for 'butterfly,' so someone may just have mixed up the N and M and plunked the Shoshone tribe in there at some point. It may have roots in another language or culture, and as I said, it's lovely - but it isn't Shoshone. Be careful and do your research. Even Nameberry isn't right all the time, and there are an unusual number of inaccuracies with 'Native American' baby names.