Cycles & Seasons
Akan Day-Names
Ghana's day-name tradition · part of a 42-day adaduanan
In Akan tradition the day you are born names you: a boy born on Friday is Kofi, a girl on Saturday Ama — which is why Kofi Annan and Kwame Nkrumah are named for weekdays. The seven-day week also runs against an older six-day cycle, and the two together take 42 days to exhaust every pairing: the adaduanan.
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In UTC at 02:02 on October 27, 2026, this calendar read Benada. The reading above is live, in your own time zone.
At a glance
- Type
- Cyclical — the seven-day week, read as names
- Origin
- Akan tradition, in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
- Week
- 7 days, each naming the children born on it; beside an older six-day cycle, the two make the 42-day adaduanan
- Counts from
- No running count
- Where it’s used
- Personal names across Ghana — Kofi for a boy born on a Friday, Ama for a girl born on a Saturday
- How it’s worked out here
- The weekday in your time zone
Does something here look wrong? Tell us about the Akan Day-Names calendar.