African Girl Names

U is an oft-rejected first initial, but a name like Uzoma makes it cool.

Bouncy South African girl name whose sound doesn't quite match its meaning.

A perky African name with a downright charming meaning.

One African choice that might be easier to understand if spelled phonetically: it's pronounced TAH-shee.

Upbeat and attractive girl name from Nigeria.

Feminine form of the male name Lelisa.

The Luhya people of Kenya have male and female names that denote the season the child was born in — Harvest, Planting, Rain, Weeding, Drought, or Hunger Season. Naliaka is the feminine name for weeding season, the male counterpart is Wanyonyi.

A Yoruba surname as well as a unisex given name.

A stunning and unique West African name for a daughter.

Traditionally given to girls who were thought to be reincarnations of their paternal grandmother.

Ameyo is a common name in West Africa, where it is traditional to give a child a name that reflects their time of birth. Ameyo means "born on Saturday" and is derived from the word mene. Kwame is the masculine counterpart.

A sonorous, if mournful, name from the Tumbuka language of Malawi and Zambia.

Even if you're not planning on having five kids, Enu makes a cute name for a son or daughter.

A unisex name used among the Urhobo people of Southern Nigeria.

Attractive African name with a meaning that honors mom.

In Akamba culture, children were historically given names with animal meanings if their mother's first pregnancy was a stillbirth. It was thought that these names promoted survival and kept the bad omens away from the child. Additionally, this saved the "good" names — typically those of grandparents — for later-born children, who were considered more likely to survive.

Although the best-known Kehinde is the male painter Kehinde Wiley, this name is used for both genders in its native Nigeria and can be just as attractive for a girl.

Gasira is a journeyed name with an ancient history. It started as the Arabic word gezira (also commonly transliterated as jazira and jazeera), meaning "island," and sometimes "peninsula."

West African naming tradition dictated that children were named for their time of birth or birth order — Nsia would have been given to a sixth-born baby girl.