02/10/2022
ORIGIN OF NAMES AND NAMING CEREMONY IN ELMINA AND OTHER FANTE COASTAL TOWNS!
NAMES ACCORDING TO DAY OF BIRTH:
Prior to the naming ceremony, the child is called by a name (with its attendant appellation) according to the day the child was born. These day-names are as follows:
SUNDAY is known as Kwesida in the Elmina language. Males born on Kwesida are called Kwesi and have the appellation Dagyaako. Females born on Sunday are called Esi or Akosua. Their appellation is Odanyin.
MONDAY is known as Dwoda in the Elmina language. Males born on Dwoda are known as Kodwo. They answer to the appellation Asera. Females born on Dwoda are called Adwoa. Their appellation is Adae.
TUESDAY is known as Benada in the Elmina language. Males born on Benada are called Kobina and have the appellation Ebo. Females born on Benada are called Abena or Araba. Their appellation is Kusia.
WEDNESDAY is known as Wukuda in the Elmina language. Males born on Wukuda are known as Kweku. They answer to the appellation Abeeku. Females born on Wukuda are called Ekua. Their appellation is Nkyere Eku.
THURSDAY is known as Yawda in the Elmina language. Males born on Yawda are called Yaw and have the appellation Obon. Females born on Yawda are called Aba. Their appellation is Gyakye.
FRIDAY is known as Fida in the Elmina language. Males born on Fida are known as Kofi. They answer to the appellation Ebu. Females born on Fida are called Efua. Their appellation is Nkoso.
SATURDAY is known as Mememda in the Elmina language. Males born on Mememda are called Kwamena and have the appellation Kwame or Ato. Females born on Mememda are called Ama. Their appellation is Adoma or Domena.
The appellations attached to these names are what are used during the traditional dawn thanksgiving called mbo, which takes place a day after the burial of a person. Also these names may become permanently attached to official traditional home names.
NAMES ACCORDING TO SUCCESSION AND/ OR MANNER OF BIRTH!
When a female is the third in sequence after two other females from a single mother, she is called the by name Mansa (a synthesis of mbasiafo ebiasa, that is, three females). When three males follow in succession from one mother, the third male is called is Mensa. Fourth born children are known as Maanan and Annan for female and male respectively. A seventh born child is called Essoun, 8th born child is Awotwe; 9th is Nkruma.. A child born tenth in succession of one mother is called Badu.
Paradoxically it is a father who is congratulated for giving ten children in a row to a woman. He is congratulated by the wife and family by slaughtering a sheep of thanks.
An eleventh born in succession from a single mother is named Duku. When two females are born in succession by a mother and the third born after these two females is a boy he is called Twinto.
Conversely when two females are born in succession and a boy is born after them she is called Akyere. When day-names are attached to these we get combinations like Aba Mansa, Kwesi Mensa, Kojo Duku, Kwame Nkruma etc
Twins, irrespective of their gender, also carry their own names. A twin is called Ata. The senior twin is called Ata Panyin (Ata Senior) and the younger called Ata Kakra (Ata junior). A whole set of rituals accompany the naming and outdooring of twins.
Twins usually have to wear beads called abam on their left wrists as part of the rituals of their peculiarity.
A child born after a set of twins has the name Tawia, irrespective of gender. However, the name of the day of birth is prefixed to the name Tawiah, for example, Aba Tawiah or Kweku Tawiah.
In unfortunate circumstances where a woman loses children in succession, a surviving child is given a very irregular name intended to scare death away from taking the child.
Such a child is given big scars on the face to rather disfigure the face to scare death more. Such names are called Kwasamba names.
Kwasamba (ko na san bra) literally means if you will die reincarnate yourself. Some of these names are: Abokoma or Saekoma (spoiler of the va**na), Pete (vulture), Kitsiw (lizard), Aberese (born to suffer), Kaya (slave), Ma kor nka (let this one remain), Wo ano boku wo (your utterances will kill you) etc.
Again, day-names are prefixed to these Kwasamba names eg. Kodwo Kaya, Esi Abokoma, Adwoa Abebrese etc.
There are also fanciful names linked to the occurrence of an event. However, these names ae not given officially at naming ceremonies.
For example, a child born on our independence day may be called Efua Ghana of Kweku Bronya (born on Christmas day). Yet still, a person may lose a properly given family name to a popular one due to circumstances. Auntie Tarkwa or Papa K*masi, when such a person has returned home permanently after a long sojourn in these towns.
SOURCES OF NAMES FOR NAMING:
It is a father and his family who give the name that a new-born will be permanently known. By convention every male child honours the father by naming the first born after the father even if the child is a girl. If the child is a female a feminine form is made out of the masculine father’s name or the father’s name will be given linked to the name of the day of birth. For example Prah will be feminised to Praba.
Names for subsequent children are given in consultation with and permission the elders of the family. These names are names of ancestors who have lived lives worthy of emulation.
These ancestors must have lived for seventy years and above. Names of younger people could be chosen if such persons did something heroic for the family and town. The name must have impact and shape the life of a person in accordance with the life of the person after whom one is named.
It is worthy of note that giving names of ancestors to others is equivalent to a way of keeping historical record of names and indirectly telling the history of the family.
The usual occurrence in Elmina is to be given an ancestral name, usually called home name. Then the child is also given the father’s name, which is usually called official name that is not used at home, but used at school and for official documents. Such official names often have religious names preceding them.
For example, the author’s home name is Kweku Akyerem. His official name is Anthony Annan-Prah. Kweku Akyerem is the name of my father’s grandfather. It was given to me whole, even though I was born on Tuesday and should have been Kobina.
Anthony is my baptismal name in the Catholic Church and Annan-Prah is my father’s surname. Usually when names of ancestors are given to a child, respect is attached to it, which respect is also explanatory of the relationship of the ancestor to the child’s father.
If the child is a male, Nana Banyin is prefixed to the name. Nana Banyin mean my grandfather. So the author’s full home name will be Nana Banyin Kweku Akyerem. For females, Nana is prefixed to the name to mean a person is named after an ancestral grandmother. Because of the use of Nana Banyin and Nana as reference to ancestral grandparents, people are careful not to insult their children, because in doing so one gets the feeling of insulting the grandparent, whose name has been given to the child so that the child emulates the ancestral grandparent way of life.
RELIGIOUS NAMES:
These are names given to people on initiation into different religious persuasions in addition to their father’s surnames. For people of the Christian religious persuasion, there are many biblical names to be baptised with eg Mary, Joseph, Joshua, Ruth etc. to be prefixed to a father’s name. In the example of the author, Anthony is the baptismal name and Annan-Prah, my father’s surname. I am yet to fully learn why our Muslim brothers and sisters do not seem to use home names ordinarily.
FOREIGN NAMES AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN ELMINA:
The interaction of Elminians with Europeans since 1482 has led to vernacularizing European names for use in the town eg Ketsina (Kate or Catherine), Soroto(Charlotte), Dusuotse (Elizabeth), Teesa (Theresa), Yahan (Joana), Maita (Martha), Yaakopo (Jacob) etc. Invariably when such vernacular names are given, their European equivalents are used at baptisms too.
FOREIGN SURNAMES:
These are surnames of children foreign males with local wives. Among them are common ones like Vandyke, Hujdecouper, Boham, Bartels, Maxwell, Van Ess, Mends, van Boven, Wartemberg, Bart Plange, Stanhope, Ephson, Laaste etc
FOREIGN TRANSLATED ELMINA NAMES:
These names are names that Europeans made out of their understanding of the meanings of Elmina names. For example Kuntu is an Elminian name which means blanket in in English. The son of Kuntu was, therefore, translated into the surname, Blankson (son of kuntu=blanket). Examples of such names are Menson (son of Mensa), Mannison, Kesson, Ennuson (son of Enu), Yankson (son of my friend= yonko), Forson (son of Annan = four), Koomson (son of K*m), Yawson (son of Yaw = Thursaday born), Woode (taaboo=wood).
COMPRESSED NAMES:
These are shortened form of Elmina names, which could have been too long or mouthful. Let us take for example the author’s home name, Nana Banyin Kweku Akyerem. Nana Banyin refers to a grandfather ancestor. Kweku was the day name of the grandfather ancestor, but Akyerem is a compressed form of Akyere me nyansa (you have taught me a lesson). The full name is Nana Banyin Kweku Akyere me nyansa. In the same way Condua is a compressed form of Nkwa dua ASE asomfo (nkwa= life, dua=tree, ase=under, asomfo=worshiper). Nkwa dua ase asomfo were the first Catholics worshipers of Elmina. The first recorded catholic mass in Ghana was celebrated under a tree on the 20th January, 1482 under a tree where the Elmina or St. George’s castle now stands.
NAMES OF CHIEFS:
Until a person is nominated chief of Elmina, he is named with the same tradition as described above. On assumption as a chief, he has to take a stool name, which is very different.
For a chief-elect to get his stool name, he is sent to grope in the darkness of his ancestral room where his predecessors’ stools are kept. He take his stool name from the ancestral stool on which he will sit.
If previous chiefs in a similar fashion had sat on that stool, then a number is added to his name eg Nana Kobina Gyan IV. If the chief does not sit on any of the stools used by his predecessors, he uses his own name and adds “The First’ to it eg. Ampon Dzi Edur I.
BY: SIR PROF. ANTHONY ANNAN-PRAH
