Kwame
Kwame was given to 42 boys in 2025, #2,961 among boys’ names; 3,993 Americans have been recorded with it since 1960 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,800 Americans named Kwame and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 34 years old and half are between 21 and 42.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kwame by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kwame mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kwame is “a male given name from Akan, given to a male child born on a Saturday; variant forms Kwamé, Kouamé, Kwami, Kwamena, Kwamina.” Its etymology gives the sense “born on Saturday” (meaning).
An ancient and traditional Akan day-name meaning “born on Saturday”. Popularized in the 1960s when Kwame Nkrumah was the Prime Minister of Ghana.
/ˈkwɑː.meɪ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kwame?
#2,961 among boys’ names, 2025
Kwame rose from #3,193 in 2015 to #2,961 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 18.8 to 24.6 per million.
307 babies in 1990, the peak
Kwame peaked in 1990, when 307 babies were given it (299 boys, #582 among boys’ names). The 42 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 42 | #2,961 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 36 | #3,307 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 38 | #3,200 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 51 | #2,636 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 48 | #2,677 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,490 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 49 | #2,645 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 40 | #2,974 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 43 | #2,826 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 51 | #2,499 | 0.03 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 36 | #3,193 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 39 | #2,958 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 48 | #2,550 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 52 | #2,432 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 56 | #2,301 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 47 | #2,610 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 40 | #2,972 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 65 | #2,109 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 40 | #2,954 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 47 | #2,561 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 57 | #2,149 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 62 | #1,962 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 50 | #2,187 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 84 | #1,500 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 79 | #1,531 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 54 | #1,932 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 59 | #1,738 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 57 | #1,779 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 60 | #1,663 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 84 | #1,306 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 86 | #1,257 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 123 | #999 | 0.06 |
| 1993 | 111 | #1,050 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 129 | #945 | 0.06 |
| 1991 | 196 | #720 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 299 | #582 | 0.15 |
| 1989 | 231 | #655 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 39 | #1,780 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 35 | #1,848 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 40 | #1,629 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 38 | #1,657 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 48 | #1,374 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 52 | #1,285 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 63 | #1,157 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 52 | #1,284 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 60 | #1,183 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 61 | #1,163 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 43 | #1,422 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 58 | #1,152 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 61 | #1,078 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 64 | #1,035 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 75 | #944 | 0.05 |
| 1973 | 91 | #837 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 105 | #781 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 76 | #937 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 44 | #1,257 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 25 | #1,661 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 11 | #2,670 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 8 | #3,123 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 11 | #2,551 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 13 | #2,321 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 9 | #2,970 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 9 | #2,964 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,844 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 11 | #2,629 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,869 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kwame a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kwame has been given almost only to boys: 38 girls in 66 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kwame: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kwame, and how old are they?
3,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 3,993 Americans ever recorded as Kwame. The median Kwame alive today is 34 years old; half are between 21 and 42.
The 2020 Census counted 4,356 people named Kwame (46 women and girls, 4,310 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,603 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 32 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 750 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,560 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 893 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 569 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Kwame born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 5 | #1,461 | 1.2× |
Where Kwame is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kwame is most over-represented in New York: since 1960 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Kwame with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kwame
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Kwame and names like it
- Compare Kwame and TarikBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKwame peaked in 1990.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kwame since 1910.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Kwame.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kwame alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.