Adwoa is an Akan name from Ghana traditionally given to a girl born on Monday.
Adwoa is an Akan day name from Ghana, given to girls born on Monday. The Akan people of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have practiced the tradition of *kra din* — soul names assigned according to the day of the week — for centuries, and the system remains vigorously alive in modern Ghanaian culture.
Monday's female name is Adwoa (the male equivalent is Kwadwo or Kojo), and it carries associations of peace and gentleness attributed in Akan cosmology to Monday-born souls. This is not superstition but a sophisticated naming philosophy: the day of birth connects a child to a specific spiritual lineage and set of character expectations, functioning somewhat like a Western astrological sign but embedded directly in the name itself. Adwoa gained significant global visibility through Adwoa Aboah, the British-Ghanaian supermodel and mental health advocate who became one of the most recognized faces in international fashion during the 2010s, and who has spoken publicly about Ghanaian identity and the meaning of her name.
The name also appears in various spellings across the diaspora — Adwoa, Adjoa, Adjowa — reflecting the range of Akan dialects and the transcription challenges of tonal West African languages into Roman script. In recent decades, as African and diaspora communities have increasingly embraced indigenous naming traditions over European alternatives, Adwoa has traveled far beyond Ghana, carried by parents who want a name that roots their daughter in a specific, living cultural and philosophical tradition while sounding genuinely beautiful in its own right.