The Ewe of the Volta Region give their children day names like the Akan, from whom they borrowed them, but with their own forms and spellings - Kɔsi rather than Kwasi, Kɔbla rather than Kwabena. Most Ewe names, though, are not about the day at all. They are about God, destiny, and what a family went through.

This guide follows Rashidat Edem Abdul’s study of Ewe personal names for a University of Ghana MPhil (2014), drawn from the registers of three secondary schools in the Volta Region and built on Egblewogbe’s earlier work on Ewe names.

Day names

Birthday names are azagbeŋkɔwo in Ewe. The days are Dzoɖa, Blaɖa, Kuɖa, Yawoɖa, Fiɖa, Memliɖa and Kɔsiɖa, Monday to Sunday.

Day In Ewe Boy Girl
Sunday Kɔsiɖa Kɔsi Kɔsiwa
Monday Dzoɖa Kɔdzo Adzo
Tuesday Blaɖa Kɔbla Abla
Wednesday Kuɖa Kɔku Aku
Thursday Yawoɖa Yao Yawa
Friday Fiɖa Kofi Afi
Saturday Memliɖa Kɔmi Ama

In Togo, where Ewe is spoken too, the same names are often spelled Kossi, Kodjo, Koku, Komla or Komlan, Adjo and Afiwa. Some girls’ names are made from the boy’s with an ending, as Kɔsi becomes Kɔsiwa.

How they are used

The day name is a child’s first, automatic name, but Ewe families rarely use it as the first name on paper. In Abdul’s registers most people with a birthday name carried it as their second name, and some use only its initial. Its use is mostly within the family and among friends.

Some people do not want it known at all. An old man from Keta told the researcher that a birthday name can be used to cast a spell on the person who carries it, so knowing someone’s day is knowing something about them.

English and Akan spellings

Ewe day names are often written the English way, with q or c for the k and o for the ɔ - which is where many familiar Ghanaian surnames come from:

  • Quarshie, Kwashie, Kossi, Korshie for Kɔsi
  • Coffie for Kofi
  • Quarcoo for Kɔku
  • Cudjoe for Kudzo

Or the Akan way: Kwame for Kɔmi, Kwesi or Kwasi for Kɔsi, Kwabena for Kɔbla, Kojo for Kɔdzo. Either way, Abdul notes, it becomes hard to tell from the name that its bearer is Ewe.

Birth order

Order of birth names (dzidzimeŋkɔwo) count children of the same sex born one after another. Unlike the Akan, they begin with the third: a Mɛsa is a boy born after two boys, with no girl in between.

Born Boy Girl
Third of the same sex Mɛsa Mansa
Fourth Nani Mana
Fifth Anumu Makɔ

Anlo clan names

Only the Anlo, around Keta, name children by clan. A clan comes from the father, and each of the fifteen Anlo clans has its own names for its children in order of birth - Agave, Tsiame, Blu, Amɛ, Adzɔvia, Dzevi, Klevi, Vifeme, Bamee, Amlade, Like, Laƒe, Tovi, Bate and Xetsoƒe. Some examples:

  • Tete - the first son, in the Dzevi and Viƒeme clans
  • Amɛ - the first son, in the Tsiame clan
  • Tsatsu - the second son, in the Agave, Amlade, Like and Klevi clans
  • Abui - the second daughter, in the Adzɔvia, Bamee and Xetsoƒe clans
  • Madui - the fourth daughter, in the Blu clan

Twins

Two boys are Atsu and Etse; two girls Eɣi and Ɣetsa; a boy and a girl Atsu and Atsuƒi. The child after twins is Do, believed to fill the space the twins left behind; after Do come Dotse, a boy, or Doƒui, a girl.

— Twins, and the children after them

God, destiny and the rest

Nearly half the Ewe names in Abdul’s registers were about God, the largest group of all. A name beginning with E-, “he”, can begin with Mawu-, “God”, instead: Eɖinam and Mawuɖinam both mean “he heard me”.

  • God: Elikem, “he established me”; Elikplim, “God is with me”; Elɔm, “God loves me”; Eyram, “God blessed me”; Mawunyo, “God is good”; Mawusime, “in God’s hands”; Selasi, “the hearer hears”; Makafui, “I will praise him”; Yayra, “blessing”.
  • Destiny: names beginning Se-, short for Dzɔgbese, destiny - Senanu, “destiny has given”; Semenyo, “destiny is good”; Sefakɔ, “destiny has comforted”; Senya, “destiny knows”.
  • Life and character: Agbenyega, “life is great”; Dzifa, “a cool heart”; Dzidzɔ, “happiness”; Dodzi, “take heart”; Ablɔɖe, “freedom”; Nyateƒe, “truth”; Suetɔ, “the smallest one”.

Names that protect a child

A mother who lost several children might go to an oracle and, in effect, buy the next one from it. Such a child gets a “slave” name meant to turn away the spirits: Klu for a boy, Kosi for a girl (not the same as Kɔsi, the Sunday name), and Klutse, Kluƒi and Kosiƒi for the children after them. Abdul found these names becoming rare.

A pregnancy believed to have run past its time could also be named: Feyi, “a year has passed”, or Fenu, according to the linguist Dzameshie.

— All Ghanaian day names — What Akan names mean — Ga and Dangme names