Yaw
An African name meaning "born on Thursday" or "greatness."
Name Census estimates that about 390 living Americans carry the first name Yaw. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Yaw today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yaw births was 1997 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yaw. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Yaw with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
390
~ 1 in 878,857 Americans
Peak year
1997
18 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,700
Tracked since 1973
Census
Yaw in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,319 people with the first name Yaw, which placed it at #10,205 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,205
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,319 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
87.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yaw
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yaw is Black at 87.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.6%) and White (1.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Yaw described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Yaw at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American87.6% · 1,156
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.6% · 127
- White1.1% · 14
- Two or more races0.9% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Yaw: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yaw from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 114 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Yaw remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yaw by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Yaw during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yaws live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yaw
The name Yaw has its origins in the Akan language spoken by various ethnic groups in Ghana and Ivory Coast. It is believed to have been derived from the word "yaw" meaning "born on Thursday". This suggests that the name likely originated among the Akan people of West Africa during a time when naming conventions were tied to the day of the week a child was born.
Historically, the name Yaw was most commonly used by the Akan ethnic groups such as the Ashanti, Fante, Akyem, and Akuapem. It gained popularity as a given name among these groups several centuries ago, with early records indicating its usage as far back as the 16th century.
One of the earliest known references to the name Yaw can be found in the 17th century book "A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea" by Dutch author Willem Bosman. In this work, Bosman mentions a prominent Akan chief named Yaw Bunku who ruled over the town of Ahanta in present-day Ghana.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Yaw. One of the most famous was Yaw Asantewa (1840-1924), a Ghanaian queen and military leader who led the Ashanti resistance against British colonialism in the late 19th century.
Another prominent figure was Yaw Opare-Amuako (1917-2013), a Ghanaian politician and diplomat who served as the country's Minister of Finance and later as its Ambassador to the United Nations.
In the world of sports, Yaw Asamoah (born 1988) is a Ghanaian professional football player who has represented his country in several international tournaments, including the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.
Yaw Ababio (1936-2017) was a Ghanaian lawyer and author who served as the Director of Public Prosecutions for Ghana and later as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
Lastly, Yaw Agyeman Badu (born 1985) is a Ghanaian musician and songwriter who has gained international recognition for his contributions to the Ghanaian hip-hop and highlife music scenes.
People
Yaw + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yaw as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yaw: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yaw?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 390 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yaw going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 878,857 US residents.
Is Yaw a common name?
We classify Yaw as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 398 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yaw most popular?
The single biggest year for Yaw was 1997, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yaw is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yaw in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,319 people with the name Yaw, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,205 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Yaw in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Yaw?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yaw leans strongly male. 1,293 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 27 female bearers (2.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Yaw?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yaw is Black at 87.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (9.6%) and White (1.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Yaw most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yaw in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.6% (1,156 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Yaw in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yaw a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yaw in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Yaw still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yaw in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Yaw can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Yaw?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Yaw on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.