Kwabena
Masculine · “born on Tuesday”
Kwabena means Tuesday. Akan naming in Ghana and Ivory Coast gives every child a name from the day of the week they were born on, and it is not a nickname or an addition — it is a real name that most people carry for life. Kwabena is the male Tuesday name. Its American record follows Ghanaian migration and peaks in 1990.
How old is the name Kwabena?
Kwabena first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Kwabena alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Kwabena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kwabena most popular?
Kwabena peaked in 1990, reaching #3166 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 2,695 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Benada to Kwabena
The story of Kwabena
The Akan peoples of Ghana and Ivory Coast — Ashanti, Fante and others — have used day naming for as long as it has been recorded, and it remains standard: Kofi Annan and Kwame Nkrumah both carried Friday and Saturday names. The system traveled with the Atlantic slave trade, and day names appear in Jamaican, Barbadian and American colonial records, where Cuffee, Quashee, Quaco and Cudjoe are anglicizations of Kofi, Kwasi, Kwaku and Kwadwo. Modern American use of the unaltered Akan spelling is more recent and follows twentieth-century Ghanaian migration, along with a deliberate return to West African names from the 1970s onward.
Meaning
born on Tuesday
Akan day names are built from the name of the day plus a sex-marking element. Tuesday is Benada; the male form is Kwabena and the female Abenaa. The full set runs Kwasi and Akosua for Sunday, Kwadwo and Adwoa for Monday, Kwabena and Abenaa for Tuesday, Kwaku and Akua for Wednesday, Yaw and Yaa for Thursday, Kofi and Afua for Friday, Kwame and Ama for Saturday. Each day also carries a traditional character association, though the name is given by the calendar and not by observation.
How the name formed
- Benada
- Kwabena
Related forms: Kwabena · Kobina · Komla
Pronouncing Kwabena
kwah-BEH-nah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the kw said as a single cluster and open vowels throughout. English speakers manage it readily; the main error is separating the k and w into two syllables.
Nicknames for Kwabena
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
- 1970
- Most boys named
- 200428 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3166reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- −6.3%15 in 2025, from 16
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.
Kwabena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kwabena in Akan — same name
- Kobina in Fante — spelling variant
- Komla in Ewe — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Virginia.
Kwabenas among us
people named Kwabena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Kwabena
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 Moritz test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kwabena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Moritz climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Moritz's path sketches the road Kwabena is walking now.
Kwabena 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
Kwabena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kwabena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is exact, verifiable and can be given in three words.
- It belongs to a living naming system rather than to a fashion.
- The spelling is phonetic and stable across Ghanaian and English usage.
- It ties the name to a specific day, which is either the point or a constraint.
- The Fante spelling Kobina is equally correct and looks like an error for it.
- It is rare in the United States and will be spelled out routinely.
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Kwabena
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kwabenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Kwabena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kwabena in 2025?
- Kwabena ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kwabena?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Kwabena — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kwabena with classmates?
- Kwabena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kwabena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kwabena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kwabena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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