Kwame
Masculine · “born on a Saturday”
Kwame is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,955 boys against 38 girls since 1880.
Kwame means Saturday. In Akan naming a child receives a name for the day of the week they were born, automatically and before anything else is decided, and Kwame is the one for a boy born on a Saturday.
How old is the name Kwame?
Kwame first appears in US birth records in 1960 — 65 years ago. The typical Kwame alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 3,800 people named Kwame are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kwame most popular?
Kwame peaked in 1990, reaching #583 nationally. Today it ranks #2941, 2,358 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kwame
The Akan peoples of Ghana and Ivory Coast give every child a day name at birth, and it is a real name used for life alongside whatever else the family chooses — the system has been in continuous operation for centuries and covers millions of people. Each day is associated with a particular character in traditional belief, and Saturday's is connected to the supreme being. The names traveled with the Atlantic slave trade and survive in the Caribbean and the American South in altered forms, and they returned deliberately in the twentieth century as African-American families reached for African names.
Meaning
born on a Saturday
Akan day names come in pairs, one for each sex, and Kwame is the male Saturday name; the female is Ama. The system is documented and entirely regular: Kwasi and Akosua for Sunday, Kwadwo and Adwoa for Monday, and so on through the week. The reading is not a gloss but a fact about when the child was born.
Pronouncing Kwame
KWAH-may
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the final e fully sounded. American English sometimes flattens the ending to KWAH-mee or silences it entirely, which loses the vowel Akan requires.
Nicknames for Kwame
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
- 1960
- Most boys named
- 1989231 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #583reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%42 in 2025, from 36
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.
Kwame in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kwame in Akan — same name
- Kwamena in Akan — spelling variant
- Komla in Ewe — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, New York, North Carolina.
Kwames among us
people named Kwame are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 40,668 born in 2025 was named Kwame
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 Kirt test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kwame's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kirt climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kirt's path sketches the road Kwame is walking now.
Kwame 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
Where Kwame is headed
Kwame should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kwame beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kwame in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A meaning that is a documented fact rather than a claimed gloss.
- Five letters, entirely phonetic, and said nearly correctly by English speakers at first sight.
- Part of a living and completely regular naming system used by millions of people.
- It states the day of the week the child was born, which is either exactly right or slightly odd.
- The final e is fully sounded and American English will keep trying to silence it.
- Kwame, Kwami and Kwamé all circulate in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kwame
Masculine · #2941 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kwames are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,800 people named Kwame are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kwame in 2025?
- Kwame ranks #2941 among US boy names in 2025, with 42 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kwame?
- About 1 in every 40,668 US boys born in 2025 was named Kwame — 42 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kwame with classmates?
- Kwame will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kwame
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Prescott#2941 · Michelangelo#2941 · Jahan#2941 · Kairi#2941 · Yonah#2941 · Nihal#2941 · Lakai#2941 · Reyes#2941
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kwame? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kwame and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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