[2][3] The country was named by 15th-century Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, the first European to sight and map Freetown harbor.

The original Portuguese name, Serra Lyoa (“Lion Mountains”), referred to the range of hills that surrounds the harbor.

Smaller groups encompass the coastal Bullom, Vai, and Krim, as well as the Fulani and Malinke,[5] who are immigrants from Guinea concentrated in the north and east.

The Creoles, descendants of liberated blacks who settled the coast from the late 18th to the mid-19th century, are primarily found in and around Freetown.

Mende, spoken by 31%[6] of the population as a native language, is widely used in the southern and most of the eastern parts of Sierra Leone.