← Back to The High and Late Middle Ages
Girl · Akan (Twi and Fante), Ghana
Ama
Say it: AH-mah
Meaning
An Akan day name meaning a girl born on Saturday.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Akan day names reached the Americas with enslaved West Africans, and the original forms were taken up again by some African American parents from the 1960s onward.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 958 babies given this name since 1885
- At its height in 1885, about 1 in 19,000 girls
- 12 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Amma
Famous bearers
- Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian writer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.