Ghana memoirs – baby names

 

One of the interesting things I discovered during trip during my trips to Ghana is how the locals name their babies.

Believe it or not, babies are named after the day they are born. Thus, you can estimate that all the men in this country have just seven names between them to share. Ditto for the women.

 The former UN Secretary – General, Dr. Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian, is Friday’s child. And their first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, revered as the father of that nation, was born on a Saturday.

 The list of baby names below was prepared for me by the receptionist at my hotel. She had one word of caution, though – the spellings were as per her language – I do not know what it was, and it could very well be different in others – and I do not know what those languages are, either… (BTW, Ghana has over 50 major languages !!)

DAYS	BOY	GIRL
Sunday	Kwasi	Akosua
Monday	Kwadjo	Adzoa
Tuesday	Kwasena	Abena
Wednesday	Kwela	Akua
Thursday	Yaw	Yaa
Friday	Kofi	Afia
Saturday	Kwami	Ama

 I was chatting with the hotel staff after receiving this list, when a thought struck me.

 Try to imagine a similar practice in Bengal, with a few million men, each having one of only seven names, like – “Shombar Dey”, “Mongolbar Kar”, “Budhbar Gupta”, “Shonibar Dhar”… We do have Sundays in our names, though – Robi Banerjee, et al…

 And how would the local telephone directory look like ?

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