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The 'Akan people' of Ghana frequently 'name' their children after the day of the week they were born and the order in which they were born. These names have spread through West Africa, from Benin/Dahomey (Fon) and Togo (Ewe) to the Côte d'Ivoire (Baoulé), and throughout the African diaspora.
As examples, Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was so named for being born on a Saturday (Kwame) and being the ninth born (Nkrumah). Also, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, was so named for being born on a Friday (Kofi).
In the official orthography of the Twi language, the Ashanti versions of these names as spoken in Kumasi are as follows. The diacritics on á a̍ à represent high, mid, and low tone (tone does not need to be marked on every vowel), while the diacritic on a̩ is used for vowel harmony and can be ignored. (Diacritics are frequently dropped in any case.) Variants of the names are used in other languages, or may represent different transliteration schemes. The variants mostly consist of different affixes (in Ashanti, ''kwa-'' or ''ko-'' for men and ''a-'' plus ''-a'' or ''-wa'' for women). For example, among the Fante, the prefixes are ''kwe-'' and ''e-'', respectively. Akan ''d̩wo'' is pronounced something like English ''Joe'', but there do appear to be two sets of names for those born on Tuesday.

Day born	Male name	Female name	Variants
''Monday (Dwoada)''	Kwadwó	Adjwóà	Kodjó, Kojo (pronounced Ko-n-joe), Jojo; Adjua, Adjoa, Ajwoba
''Tuesday (Benada)''	Kwabená	Ábenaa	Komlá, Komlã, Kobby, Ebo, Kobi Kobina; Araba, Ablá, Ablã, Abena, Abrema
''Wednesday (Wukuada)''	Kwakú	Akúà, Akuba	Koku, Kweku, kaku, Kuuku; Akú, Ekua
''Thursday (Yawoada)''	Yaw	Yaá	Yao, Yaba, Yawo, Yao, Ekow, Kow, Kwaw; Ayawa, Baaba, Yaaba, Aba
''Friday (Fiada)''	Kofí	Afúa	Koffi, Fiifi; Afí, Afía, Efia, Efua
''Saturday (Memeneda)''	Kwámè	Ám̀ma	Ato, Kwamena, Kwami, Komi; Ame, Ama, Amba, Ameyo
''Sunday (Kwasiada)''	Kwasí	Akósua	Kwesi, Siisi, Akwasi, Kosi; Akosi, Akosiwa, Así, Esi

There are also special names for elder and younger twins. The second twin to be born is considered the elder as they were mature enough to help their sibling out first.

Twin	Male name	Female name	Variants
''Elder''	Atá/Payin	Ataá	Atta
''Younger''	Atsú/Kakira	Kakira	Akwetee (m)

There are also names based on the order born, the order born after twins, and the order born after remarriage.

Order	Male name	Female name	Variants
''First born''	Berko		Abaka, Piesie, Kande (f)?
''Second born''	Manu
''Third born''	Mensa	Mansa	Mensah (m); Mansah (f)
''Fourth born''			Annan, Anane (m),
''Fifth born''			Anum
''Sixth born''			Nsia, Essien
''Seventh born''			Esson
''Eight born''			Awotwe
''Ninth born''			Akun, Ackon
''Tenth born''			Bedu
''Last born''	Kaakyire
''Born afer twins''	Tawiah		Kissa (f)?
''First with a new husband''

Contents

Other Names

References

Other Names

★ ''Seventh Born'' - Ansong

★ ''Eighth Born'' - Awotwie

★ ''Ninth Born'' - Nkrumah

★ ''Tenth Born'' - Badu

★ ''God-given'' - Nyamekye

References

★ J.E. Redden and N. Owusu (1963, 1995). ''Twi Basic Course''. Foreign Service Institute (Hippocrene reprint). ISBN 0-7818-0394-2

★ Florence Abena Dolphyne (1996). ''A comprehensive course in Twi (Asante) for the Non-Twi learner''. Ghana Universities Press, Accra. ISBN 9964302452