The Bakairi call themselves Kurâ, which means people, human beings. They consider themselves the true Kurâ, humanity par excelence, while other beings have to be specified. Kurâ expresses, strctu sensu, "we, the Bakairi", "what is ours". The origin of the term Bakairi is unknown to them and is found recorded in the chronicles of regional history since the 18th Century.