Day names are not only a southern custom. The Dagomba of the Northern Region have a set of their own, and they sound nothing like Kofi and Ama - because they come from a different source. In Dagbon, though, a day name is a small part of a person’s names, and most of what a Dagomba name says is about the family.
This guide follows Wikipedia’s article on Dagomba naming customs, which draws on the linguist Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu’s Personal Names of the Dagomba (2000) and Christine Oppong’s Growing Up in Dagbon (1973). Spellings of Dagbani names vary a great deal from one source to the next.
The day names
| Day | Name |
|---|---|
| Sunday | Lahari, a girl |
| Monday | Tani, a girl |
| Tuesday | Talaata, a girl |
| Wednesday | Lariba, a girl |
| Thursday | Lamisi or Laamishi, a boy or a girl |
| Friday | Azindoo, a boy; Azima, a girl |
| Saturday | Sibido, a boy; Sibiri, a girl |
Most are for girls; only Friday and Saturday have a boy’s name, and Thursday is a name for either. Other spellings in use include Lahiri, Zilaata, Laaba, Laamihi, Azimpaga and Sibipaga - the -paga ending is “woman”.
They will sound familiar to anyone who knows the Hausa days of the week - Lahadi, Talata, Laraba, Asabar - which come from Arabic, the language that came with Islam.
Unlike in the south, a day name in Dagbon says nothing about a person’s family or people, and anyone can take one. It is also less common than in southern Ghana.
Naming on the seventh day
A newborn is first called Saandoo, a boy, or Sanpaga, a girl - “stranger” - until it is named. The naming comes seven days after the birth, led by the father or the head of the household, in one of two ways:
- The traditional rite, zugupinbu, “shaving the head”: the baby’s hair is shaved and a soothsayer consults the spirits to find its name.
- The Muslim rite, suuna: Islam is the main religion in Dagbon, which is why so many Dagomba have Muslim names, and many have a traditional name as well.
— Outdooring, the southern ceremony
Names that tell a story
Perhaps the commonest Dagomba names, the article says, come from what was happening in the family, often through a proverb:
- Tunteya - “the family is growing”
- Zantale - “take someone’s fault”, from a quarrel at the time
- Suhuyini - “one heart”
Others record the time of day - Nindow or Naniendo for a boy, Nenpaga or Niema for a girl - or come from the family’s shrine and ancestors, such as Tia and Tipaga, Jebuni for either, or Andani and Banzu.
And the rest of the north
The Gonja, Mamprusi, Frafra, Dagaaba, Kasena and the north’s other peoples each have their own customs, which this site has not found a reliable published account of. They are left out rather than guessed at.