The name used to refer to the mountain as a whole is spelled "Kilimanjaro" in French and Kilimanjaro in English.
It is also called Ol Doinyo Oibor in Maa, or “White Mountain” or “Sparkling Mountain”. Its name was adopted in 1860 and comes from the Swahili Kilima Njaro. “Kilimanjaro” was quickly the subject of toponymic studies, Johann Ludwig Krapf seeing in it the “Mountain of splendor” without however further explanation. In 1884, Gustav Adolf Fischer asserts that Njaro is a demon of the cold, an idea taken up by Hans Meyer during his ascension in 1889, but Njaro is known only to the inhabitants of the coast and not to those living inland. , who moreover believed only in benefactor spirits. Joseph Thomson was the first to assume, in 1885, that it meant “Sparkling Mountain”. If the diminutive kilima means "hill", "small mountain", this theory does not explain why the word mlima is not used to designate in a less improper way the "mountain" if it is not for emotional reasons or by deformation. Njaro means whiteness, shine in Swahili. Moreover, in maa, ngaro or ngare refers to water or springs. But jaro can also designate a caravan in kichagga and an alternative theory proposes the terms kilmanare / kilemanjaare, kilelemanjaare or even kileajao / kilemanyaro, the meaning of which is respectively "who defeats the bird" or "the leopard" or "the caravan". However, this name would not have been imported until the middle of the XNUMXth century among the Wachagga, who only used to name each of the peaks known to them separately, making this explanation anachronistic.