The Suriname Names of the Weekdays
This page provides a list of the names of the days in the Surinamese language:
| Surinamese Name | English Name | Litteral Translation |
| Sonde | Sunday | Sunday |
| Munde | Monday | Monday |
| Tude-wroko | Tuesday | Second day of work |
| Dride-wroko | Wednesday | Third day of work |
| Fode-wroko | Thursday | Fourth day of work |
| Freida | Friday | Friday |
| Saba / Satra | Saturday | Sabbath / Saturday |
It appears that the Surinamese Slaves were exported from an African area, that nowadays is known as Ghana. The Slaves used to name their children corresponding the days that they were born. The name of a child was dependant of the day that it was born. This habit was inherited from their African ancesters. For instance: If a boy was born on a friday, his name would be Kofi (Think of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan) and if a boy was born on a wednesday, he was called Kwakoe (Kwaku). Here is a survey of the names beloning to a certain day.
| Day of the week | Name given to a boy (male) | Name given to a girl (female) |
| Sunday | Kwasi | Kwasiba |
| Monday | Kodyo (Kodjo) | Adyuba |
| Tuesday | Kwamina | Abeniba |
| Wednesday | Kwaku (Kwakoe) | Akuba |
| Thursday | Yaw | Yaba |
| Friday | Kofi | Afiba |
| Saturday | Kwami | Amba |
Another nice thing to see is the resemblance with other West-African names and in particular the Ghanaian names.
This page: Copyright © 2001 - 2019 Peter A. J. Troon