Kwame
A masculine name of Akan origin meaning "born on Saturday".
Name Census estimates that about 3,808 living Americans carry the first name Kwame. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Kwame today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kwame births was 1990 (307 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kwame. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kwame with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 90,009 Americans
Peak year
1990
307 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,297
Tracked since 1960
Census
Kwame in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,353 people with the first name Kwame, which placed it at #4,338 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,338
National first-name rank
People counted
4.4K
4,353 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
92.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kwame
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kwame is Black at 92.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.7%) and Hispanic (2.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kwame described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kwame at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American92.1% · 4,009
- Two or more races3.7% · 159
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 100
- White1.4% · 63
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Kwame
Out of the 3,951 babies given the name Kwame since 1880, 99.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Kwame as a male name
- Ranked #3,297 in 2024
- 36 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (299 births)
Kwame as a female name
- Ranked #9,733 in 1990
- 8 female births in 1990
- Peak: 1971 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kwame leans strongly male. 4,310 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 46 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Kwame: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kwame from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,212 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kwame by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kwame during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kwames live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. New York, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Kwame, while Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 87 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kwame
The name Kwame has its origins in the Akan language spoken by the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast in West Africa. It is a masculine name derived from the Akan word "kwame," which means "born on Saturday." This suggests that the name was likely given to boys born on a Saturday according to the Akan naming tradition.
The Akan people have a long and rich cultural history dating back centuries, and their naming practices have been an integral part of their traditions. The Akan naming system is based on the day of the week a child is born, with each day having its own set of names for boys and girls.
Historical records suggest that the name Kwame has been in use among the Akan people for several centuries, although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of its use. It is possible that the name was mentioned in ancient Akan oral traditions or folklore, but written records from that time are scarce.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kwame is Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, who was born in 1909 and served as president from 1960 to 1966. He was a prominent figure in the Pan-African movement and played a crucial role in Ghana's independence from British colonial rule.
Another notable bearer of the name Kwame is Kwame Anthony Appiah, a British-Ghanaian philosopher and cultural theorist who was born in 1954. He is known for his work on race, identity, and cosmopolitanism, and has written several influential books, including "In My Father's House" and "The Ethics of Identity."
Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, was an American civil rights activist and leader of the Black Power movement. He was born in 1941 and played a significant role in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
Kwame Kilpatrick is an American former politician who served as the Mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. He was born in 1970 and was involved in a corruption scandal that ultimately led to his resignation and conviction on various charges.
Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong was a Ghanaian military officer and politician who served as the Head of State of Ghana from 1972 to 1978. He was born in 1932 and rose to power through a military coup, ruling Ghana during a period of economic and political turmoil.
People
Kwame + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kwame as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kwame: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kwame?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,808 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kwame going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 90,009 US residents.
Is Kwame a common name?
We classify Kwame as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,951 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kwame most popular?
The single biggest year for Kwame was 1990, when 307 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kwame is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kwame in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,353 people with the name Kwame, or 1.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,338 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kwame in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kwame?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kwame leans strongly male. 4,310 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 46 female bearers (1.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kwame?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kwame is Black at 92.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.7%) and Hispanic (2.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kwame most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kwame in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.1% (4,009 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kwame in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kwame a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Kwame in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kwame still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kwame in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kwame can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Kwame?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Kwame at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.