Half the men you meet in Accra seem to be called Kofi, Kwame or Kwesi, and it is not a coincidence. Across southern Ghana a child is named for the day of the week it was born, so a Kofi was born on a Friday and an Ama on a Saturday - and anyone who hears the name knows it.
The custom began with the Akan, Ghana’s largest group, and spread: the Ewe and the Ga give day names too, with their own spellings, and the Dagomba of the north have a set of their own. This is the overview. Each people’s names have a guide of their own, linked below.
Every day name, by people
| Born on | Twi (Asante, Akuapem) | Fante | Ewe | Ga |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Kwasi · Akosua | Kwesi · Esi | Kɔsi · Kɔsiwa | Kwashi · Akoshia |
| Monday | Kwadwo · Adwoa | Kojo, Jojo · Adwoa | Kɔdzo · Adzo | Kojo · Ajoa |
| Tuesday | Kwabena · Abenaa | Kobina, Ebo · Abenaa, Araba | Kɔbla · Abla | Kobla · Abla |
| Wednesday | Kwaku · Akua | Kweku, Kuuku · Ekua, Kuukua | Kɔku · Aku | Kwaku · Akua |
| Thursday | Yaw · Yaa | Ekow · Aba | Yao · Yawa | Kwao · Aba |
| Friday | Kofi · Afua | Kofi, Fiifi · Efua, Efe | Kofi · Afi | Kofi · Afua |
| Saturday | Kwame · Ama | Kwame, Kwamina, Ato · Ama | Kɔmi · Ama | Kwami · Ama |
The boy’s name comes first, then the girl’s. Twi and Fante are from Kofi Agyekum’s study of Akan names in the Nordic Journal of African Studies (2006); Ewe from a University of Ghana thesis on Ewe names (Rashidat Edem Abdul, 2014) and the lists it draws on; Ga from a Ghana News Agency feature on Ga naming (2024). Every one of them is spelled several ways - see below.
Nzema children get the Akan set (Kwasi, Kodzo, Kaku, Yaw, Kofi, Kwami), though the Nzema words for the days themselves run one day out of step with the Akan ones. Dagbani day names - Lahari, Tani, Talaata and the rest - are a different set altogether, mostly for girls. Both are in their own guides.
What a day name is
The Akan call it kradin, the soul’s name: the name the soul is believed to bring with it, because the soul chose the day the child would arrive. Each day carries a character, so Monday-borns are said to be calm, Friday-borns wanderers and Saturday-borns creative, and each name has a traditional praise name that elders still answer a greeting with.
It is the first name a child has, before the family name is given at the outdooring on the eighth day. Many people then carry it as a middle name - Kwame in “Daniel Kwame Mensah” - and use it with family and friends.
Not everyone uses theirs. Among some Ewe it is kept quiet, from an old belief that someone who knows your birth day can use it against you, and some people write it only as an initial on their documents.
Finding yours
You need the day of the week you were born, which most people know only from family. Any phone calendar will show it: go back to your birth date and read the day.
Then read across the table for your people, or choose the spelling you like if you have no Ghanaian family. Friends will happily give you one anyway.
Spellings, and your documents
Each name is written several ways: Kwabena and Kwabina, Kwasi and Kwesi, Adwoa and Adjoa, Yaw and Yao. Ewe names in particular are often written in an English or an Akan spelling - Quarshie or Kwesi for Kɔsi, Coffie for Kofi, Quarcoo for Kɔku, Cudjoe for Kudzo - which can hide which people a name comes from.
None of the spellings is wrong, but a different spelling on two documents is a mismatch to a bank, SSNIT or the passport office. Check that your day name is spelled the same way on your birth certificate, your Ghana Card and everything else.
— Checking your Ghana Card details — One and the same person declaration
Two famous examples
Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi on 8 April 1938, a Friday, so Kofi. His twin sister was Efua Atta: Efua, the Fante name for a Friday girl, and Atta, the Akan name for a twin. Annan is the name given to a fourth-born.
Kwame Nkrumah’s recorded birth date, 21 September 1909, was a Tuesday. He was named Nwia-Kofi after a relative, and Kwame came later - the custom bends: a child named after someone can take that person’s day name instead of their own. Nkrumah itself is the name traditionally given to a ninth child.
Day names abroad
The names crossed the Atlantic with enslaved Africans from the Gold Coast. Several leaders of slave revolts in the Caribbean carried them - Cuffy or Cuffee (Kofi), Cudjoe (Kojo), Quao and Quamina (Kwamina) - and the Ndyuka of Suriname have a set of their own. It is why names like Cudjoe turn up in Jamaica.
The rest of the series
- Akan day names: Twi, Fante and Nzema - the days of the week, each name’s praise name and character, and the Nzema twist
- What Akan names mean - birth order, places, festivals, hard times and the names that keep a child alive
- Ewe names - day names, birth order, clan names and names about God and destiny
- Ga and Dangme names - the family and town names that say where a person is from
- Dagbani day names and naming in Dagbon
- Twins, and the children after them - Atta, Atsu, Akwete and the names that follow