Ashanti people given-names are concluded with a
family name (
surname) preceded by a
given name. The family name (surname) are always given after close relatives and sometimes friends. Since Ashanti names are always given by the men, if a couple receives a son as their first born-baby then the son is named after the father of the husband and if the baby is a girl then she will be named after the mother of the husband. As a result, if the man is called
Osei Kofi and his wife gives birth to a girl as their first born, the girl may be called
Yaa Dufie even if she was not born on Friday. The reason is that the mother of the husband (
Osei Kofi) is called
Yaa Dufie. The Ashanti people usually give these names so that the names of close relatives be maintained in the families to show the love for their families. In the olden days of
Ashanti it was a disgrace if an Ashanti man was not able to name any child after his father and/or mother because that was the pride of every Ashanti household. Most of the ethnic-Ashanti family name (surname) given to boys could also be given to girls just by adding the letters "aa". Some Ashanti family names (surnames) can be given to both boys and girls without changing or adding anything. However, there are other ethnic-Ashanti family name (surnames) that are exclusively male names, while others are exclusively female names. ==References==