Badu
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Ashanti (Ghana): name for tenth-born children
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/bəˈdu/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Badu is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Ghana than in any other country.
- GHGhana≈1 in 16K(inferred from the name graph)
- NLNetherlands1 in 909K
- NGNigeria≈1 in 1.2M
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Badu itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Ghana (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 53 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 16K (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,800 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Ghana, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Ashanti (Ghana): name for tenth-born children
Sources 1
- African Names
Where in the world(measured from records)
Badu counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GH Ghana | #774 | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 16K | — | Badu | 14 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈190 est. | ≈1 in 1.2M | listed | Badu | 8 |
| PK Pakistan | — | ≈170 est. | ≈1 in 1.4M | — | Badu | 7 |
| US United States | — | ≈39 est. | ≈1 in 8.5M | 482 | Badu | 47 |
| BR Brazil | — | 21as Bidu | 1 in 10M | 1.3K | — | — |
| NL Netherlands | — | 19 | 1 in 909K | 52 | — | 4 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈4 est. | ≈1 in 1.9M | 9 | — | — |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); the african-book-names-hodari-2003 register. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Badu is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Tenth bom
as a nameThe book of African names
In German, from Germanic *badhu- 'battle, fight'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Tenth child.
as a nameThe African book of names
In Akan, pr. n, of a man who is tJie tentJi child of a mother. Baduwa, likewise of a woman, Gr.§41,5. abaduaba, s. abed
as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)
In Latvian, accusative/instrumental singular of bads
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 34 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 10 | #17,921 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 9 | #23,928 |
| NG Nigeria | The African Book of Names (Hodari, 2003) | — | — | — |
| NG Nigeria | A Handbook of African Names (Asante, 1976) | — | — | — |
| NG Nigeria | African Names (Julia Stewart, 1993) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Badu mean, and where does it come from?
- Ashanti (Ghana): name for tenth-born children Recorded by African Names.
- How do you pronounce Badu?
- A machine transcription gives /bəˈdu/ (IPA) for Hindi.
- Is Badu a male or female name?
- Badu is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- In which country does Badu have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.8 thousand people named Badu in Ghana, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled badu.
- How common is the name Badu?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 19 people named Badu, about 1 in 909 thousand residents.
- How common is Badu compared with other names?
- In Ghana, Badu is the 774th most common given name of 14,081 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Badu?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/baduThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Badu” — the 774th most common given name in Ghana. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.