Akua
Feminine · “Akan”
Akua's American peak is 1976, which is a year before Roots was broadcast. That matters, because it means the name arrived through a different door: the organized cultural movements of the late 1960s rather than the mass audience of television.
How old is the name Akua?
Akua first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Akua alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 500 people named Akua are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Akua most popular?
Akua peaked in 1976, reaching #4154 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 5,953 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Akua
African names entered American use through two distinct channels with different timings, and the data can tell them apart. The first was deliberate and organized: from the late 1960s onward, cultural nationalist organizations, study groups, bookstores and the new Kwanzaa observance circulated African names among people who sought them out, and the names that arrived that way rose gradually through the early 1970s. The second was broadcast: the Roots miniseries in January 1977 put a set of names in front of an audience of tens of millions at once, and the names it carried spike sharply in 1977 and 1978. Akua belongs to the first group. Its curve rises before the broadcast, which is a small but real piece of evidence about how a name actually traveled.
Meaning
Akan, born on a Wednesday
Akua is an Akan name from Ghana, given to a girl born on a Wednesday; the male equivalent is Kwaku. The Akan system assigns a name by the day of birth as a matter of course, so the name states a fact about the child rather than a wish. The American peak is 1976.
Pronouncing Akua
ah-KOO-ah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Some American speakers say AH-kwah with two, which compresses the middle vowel.
Nicknames for Akua
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 199916 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4154reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- −18.2%9 in 2025, from 11
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Akua in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Akua in Akan — same name
- Ekua in Akan — spelling variant
Akuas among us
people named Akua are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Akua
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dareen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Akua's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dareen climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dareen's path sketches the road Akua is walking now.
Akua sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Akua beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Akua in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is exact and belongs to a living naming system.
- Four letters and three open syllables.
- It is an ordinary everyday name in Ghana rather than a revival.
- Americans compress it to two syllables.
- It states a day of birth, which may or may not match.
- It is unfamiliar outside Ghanaian and African American communities.
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What they receive
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Akua
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Akuas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Akua are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Akua in 2025?
- Akua ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Akua?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Akua — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Akua with classmates?
- Akua will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Akua
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Akua? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Akua and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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