Ashanti is a relatively modern name. How modern is it? Well, nearly all of the older baby name books I own don't even mention Ashanti; the one that does lists it as a male name, which is interesting because it is currently much more popular for females.

Ashanti managed to rank among the most popular female names in the U.S. exactly once in the 1970s, and then twice more in the 1980s. It started showing up regularly on the list only recently, in 1993:

1993 - 880th most popular name for baby girls
1994 - 869th
1995 - 814th
1996 - 692nd
1997 - 780th
1998 - 831st
1999 - 878th
2000 - unranked
2001 - 824th
2002 - 115th
2003 - 325th
2004 - 533rd
2005 - 697th
2006 - 882nd

That jump in popularity from 2001 (824th) to 2002 (115th) was very likely due to the influence of Grammy-winning singer Ashanti (full name: Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas). Her successful, self-titled debut album--released in 2002--brought a great deal of visibility to the name.

In terms of origins, the name Ashanti was inspired by the Ashanti people of central Ghana. The Ashanti people are an ethnic group comprised of over five million members. They speak a language called Twi, and our word 'Ashanti' comes from the Twi word as�nt�.

The Ashanti had ruled a large kingdom for several centuries before the Europeans took control of the region. The kingdom was consolidated during the late 1600s and survived all the way to the early 1900s, when the Ashanti could no longer resist British colonizers.

At the height of its power, the kingdom gave gold, ivory, and slaves to European explorers in trade for other goods. Many of the slaves ended up in the Americas, and hence many African-Americans in the United States could probably trace their ancestry back to the Ashanti (if family records had been kept).

Ashanti is therefore not a bona fide 'African' name (in the sense that it is not a traditional African forename), but instead a modern name coined in tribute to the Ashanti people.


Source: Social Security Administration