The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Bantu Kikuyu language as a mother tongue. The term Kikuyu is the Swahili form of the native pronunciation Gĩkũyũ. They are also referred to as the Agĩkũyũ or Nyũmba ya Mũmbi. Gĩkũyũ literally means a huge sycamore (mũkũyũ) tree and Agĩkũyũ thus literally refers to the children of the huge sycamore. According to the 2009 Kenya Population & Housing Census, there are an estimated 6,622,576 Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya, about 16.9% of the country's total population.