Ga names and their meanings

How Ga children are named

A child is named on the eighth day after birth, at a ceremony in the morning at the house of the father's family.² The ceremony is the kpodziemɔ, which Quartey-Papafio spelled kpodsiemo.² The child is named for the father's side of the family, after the paternal grandfather, according to the family's clan and the child's place in the order of birth.³

Families pass names down in two sets that take turns: children are given the names their fathers, uncles and aunts carried, so names come back every other generation.² Many names also have an appellation, a sabla, a word or phrase that praises the name without saying it.³ Zimmermann recorded sabla in 1858 as a surname, a nickname or a person's sign.¹

Names by order of birth

The best known Ga names count the children: Tettey for a first son, Dede for a first daughter, and so on. Zimmermann wrote in 1858 that apart from Tete, Dede, Tɛtɛ, Kɔkɔ and Tsotso, these names come from the Twi numbers.¹ The sources agree on the first four places and differ after that, so both are shown.

Zimmermann gives Manum for a fifth daughter, Shasha for a sixth, Ashong for a seventh and Botswe for an eighth. The Ghana News Agency, following Amartey, gives Fofo, Ashami and then Botswe for the fifth, sixth and seventh. Ashong, Botswe, Akrong and Badu can be given to a son or a daughter.

Names for twins

Twins are a blessing, and twins have names of their own.³ Zimmermann called twins haji.¹

• Akwetea name for the first of twin boys
• Akuetea name for the second of twin boys
• Okoa name for a twin boy
• Akweleya name for the first of twin girls
• Akuorkora name for the second of twin girls
• Tawiaha name for the child born after twins

Zimmermann also gives Ata, a Twi name for a twin. The Ghana News Agency adds Agoe and Abam for a child born after twins.

Names for a child born after a loss

When a baby died and the next child was of the same sex, people believed the same child had come back. Zimmermann recorded the word gbobalɔ, literally one who comes from death, for such a child.¹ These children were given special names, often unpleasant ones, so that death would not take them again.³

• Ogboa name for a child born after a brother or sister has died
• Antobama name for a child whose father died before the naming
• Ahiaa name for a child whose mother died before the naming

Other names in the sources: Abiata, Alema, Abɛbio (come again), Laalɔ, from Zimmermann;¹ and Booba (you came voluntarily), Obegbei (you have no name), Obaamra (you did not come early), Kukwei (pot), Mminimade (a Dangme saying, "What will I say?"), from the Ghana News Agency.³

Nii and Naa

Most Ga men carry the title Nii and most Ga women the title Naa, the same titles their chiefs and queens carry. The writer A. A. Amartey links them to the belief that the ancestors come back as newborns.³

Family names

Every Ga family has its own set of names, so a name can show the family, the quarter and the town a person comes from.³ Here are the names of several Accra families, in order of birth, in two lines. Quartey-Papafio wrote down the first four in 1914,² and the Tettey family gave its own names, with the sabla it knows, in 2026.

The two lines take turns from one generation to the next. A man with a first-line name gives his children second-line names, and they give their own children first-line names again, so a child often carries a grandparent's name.² Where a list stops, Quartey-Papafio says families borrow names from other families for the children who follow.

Some names that the Ghana News Agency gives for each town:³

Ga Mashie

Abe, Adukwei, Dakua, Deidei, Lamile, Otobia, Okaija, Taki, Yaole, Kpakpo, Jagbele

Osu

Adumua, Aja, Korley, Naki, Maku, Noi, Norley, Sai, Obodai, Oboshi, Soja, Torshii, Torto

La

Adei, Ajele, Akornor, Anyele, Anyetei, Atswei, Jama, Odoi, Odole, Okpoti, Suatey, Maale, Konney, Yemoley

Teshie

Ablor, Akpor, Asheley, Ashorkor, Odua, Sowah, Mateki, Merley, Martey, Klu, Adjei

Nungua

Borkai, Borketey, Borlabi, Borkwei, Borteley, Afoley, Afotey, Odai, Mantekai, Momo, Mantetso

Tema

Abokaile, Adjeiteye, Adjei, Kailebi, Labi, Mante, Nam, Korkorbi, Armah, Ashitey, Ashia

Day names

Ga has its own names for the days of the week. Many Ga people are also given a day name for the day they were born, and those day names come from Twi.² Zimmermann called a child born on the same weekday as a parent that parent's klabi.¹

The Ga days are from Zimmermann, in today's spelling.¹ The day names are as the Ghana News Agency gives them.³ Quartey-Papafio also gives Yao for a Thursday boy and Yawa for a Thursday girl.²

Sources

1. J. Zimmermann, A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra- or Gã-Language, volume 2, the vocabulary. Stuttgart, 1858.
2. A. B. Quartey-Papafio, "The Use of Names among the Gãs or Accra People of the Gold Coast", Journal of the African Society 13, no. 50 (January 1914), pages 167 to 182. A reprint is on GhanaWeb.
3. "Sustaining the Ga tradition with the unique naming pattern", Ghana News Agency, July 2024. It draws on A. A. Amartey's book Omanye Aba.

For more, see Irene Odotei, "What is in a name? The social and historical significance of Ga names", Research Review 5, no. 2 (1989), Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.