An Akan name is rarely just a name. After the day name comes a family name, and often another that records the child’s place in the family, where it was born, what the times were like, or what its parents went through to have it. Read a full name and you can often read some of a family’s story.
This guide follows Kofi Agyekum’s study of Akan personal names in the Nordic Journal of African Studies (2006), which sorts them into the kinds below.
The family name
The second name is chosen by the father, traditionally with his own parents, from the names of his patrilineal clan - each clan has names of its own. Traditionally a brother and sister could carry different family names; today many families use one of them as a fixed surname for all the children.
Birth order
A set of names counts the children, built on the Akan numbers. Where there are two forms, the first is Twi and the second Fante.
| Born | Name |
|---|---|
| First | Piesie - “erupted from the anthill”, the mother’s belly being the anthill |
| Second | Manu |
| Third | Mensa (a boy), Mansa (a girl) |
| Fourth | Anane, Annan |
| Fifth | Num, Anum |
| Sixth | Nsia |
| Seventh | Nson, Esuon |
| Eighth | Awotwe |
| Ninth | Nkroma, Akron |
| Tenth | Badu (a boy), Baduwaa (a girl) |
| Eleventh | Duku |
| Twelfth | Adunu |
| Thirteenth | Adusa |
So Kwaku Nsia is a Wednesday-born sixth child, and Ama Anane a Saturday-born fourth. Kofi Annan’s surname is the fourth-born name, and Kwame Nkrumah’s the ninth.
Twins
Twins are Ata (a boy) and Ataa (a girl), and the children born after them have names of their own: Tawia comes next, then Nyankomago, and a few more after that, in order.
— Twins, and the children after them
Where a child was born
A child can carry the name of the town, river or lake where it was born: Afua Kumase, Kwabena Kokofu, Ama Agogo, Kwaku Bekwae, Kwasi Bosomtwe after the lake, or Densu, Afram, Pra or Tano after rivers. A child born on a farm or on the road can be named for that too.
When a child was born
- On a sacred day: Kofi Fofie, Kwasi Adae, Ama Dapaa.
- At a festival: Kwame Dwira, for the Odwira festival.
- At Christmas or Easter: Abenaa Buronya - Buronya is Christmas - or Akosua Yesu.
- In good times: Afriyie, “has come at the right time”; Abayie, “has come well”; Sika, “wealth”; Antobrɛ, “did not come to meet hardship”.
- In hard times: Abɛbrɛsɛ, “hardships”; Adiyia, “has met sorrow”; Antobam, “did not come to meet good days”.
- After the father’s death: Anto, “did not come to meet him”.
Names of thanks to God
Children born after years of waiting are often named for God: Nyamekyɛ, “God’s gift”; Nyameama, “God has given”; or Nso Nyame yɛ, “nothing is impossible for God”. A child sought from a lesser deity can carry that deity’s name instead.
Names that keep a child alive
Where a mother lost child after child, the belief was that the same child was coming and going, called back by a mother in the world of the dead. The answer was an ugly name - one the other world would not want, and the child would be ashamed to take back. Agyekum lists Sumina, “rubbish heap”; Donkɔ, “slave”; Kaya, “load carrier”; Abirekyie, “goat”; and Asaaseasa, “the land is finished” - there would be no ground to bury the child in, so it had better stay. Dinkyene, “eat salt”, tells the child to live.
It is worth knowing that a name meaning “rubbish heap” was given out of love.
Looks, and praise
Names can describe the body - Akua Kɔkɔɔ, “the red one”; Opoku Tenten, “the tall”; Akua Tia, “the short” - or come from animals and trees: Kwaku Sono, “elephant”; Kofi Nantwi, “cow”; Kwaku Dua, “tree”. Chiefs take stool names and titles on top of all of these.
— All Ghanaian day names — Ewe names — Outdooring: the naming ceremony