Hausa is a major cultural group located in Northern Nigeria, and they are mostly Muslims. This is a list of Hausa names and their meanings.
The Hausa ethnic is the largest ethnic group in Africa. Hausa is the second largest language after Arabic in the Afroasiatic family of languages.
The Hausa-speaking communities are scattered throughout West Africa. The Hausa people are over 70 million, with populations in Nigeria, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Togo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Gana, Senegal, the Gambia, and Gabon.
In Nigeria, most people regard the Northern part as predominantly Hausa, but this is not so, as we have some minor tribe and religion in that part of the country that are not Hausas.
In this article, we list some Hausa names and their meaning:
- Adamu – Adam
- Ali – excellent or noble
- Aminu – reliable and trustworthy person.
- Amir – A ruler, prince or commander
- Aisha – to live in prosperity.
- Amina – safe protected and secure.
- Asmau – loftier or eminent personality
- Atikah – of a pure heart
- Asabe – child born on Saturday.
- Balaraba – female child born on Wednesday
- Balarabe – male child born on Wednesday
- Bashir – someone who brings good news.
- Bilal – a companion of the prophet.
- Danasabe – child born on Saturday
- Danjuma – male child born on Friday
- Danladi – male child born on Sunday
- Danlami – male child born on Thursday
- Faidah – advantage
- Faiqah – someone who surpasses excellence
- Fatimah – daughter of the prophet
- Faizu – victorious
- Faruq – the distinguisher of truth from falsehood
- Faisal – decisive
- Fuad – heart
- Gambo – a child after twins
- Hassan – first boy in a set of twins
- Hassana – twin girl
- Hussain – second boy in a set of twins
- Hussaina – twin girl
- Habibah – beloved
- Hafsah – wife of the prophet
- Halimah – gentle heart
- Hamidah – appreciative
- Habib – beloved
- Hadi – calm person
- Hafiz a guardian or protector
- Hamzah – lion
- Imam – leader
- Isa – Jesus
- Ismaila – Ishmael
- Jummai – female child born on Friday
- Jamilah: a beautiful, elegant and graceful person.
- Jalil – exalted
- Jamal – beauty and grace
- Jibril – archangel
- Kaka – grandmother
- Khamees – female child born on Thursday
- Khamisa – female child born on Thursday
- Khadijah – wife of prophet Muhammad
- Kubra – a senior person or someone with higher authority.
- Kamil – complete or perfect
- Khalifah – a successor
- Ladi – female child born on Sunday
- Lami – female child born on Thursday
- Lantana – female child born on Monday
- Laraba – female child born on Wednesday
- Larai – female child born on Wednesday.
- Latifah – kind and gentle heart
- Lubabah – the innermost essence
- Musa – Moses
- Mansurah – supporter
- Maryam – mother of Jesus
- Maimuna – blessing
- Mahmud – praised
- Mansur – aided
- Mushin – benevolent
- Mustafa – chosen
- Nabilah – nobility
- Nafisah – precious, rare gem
- Naimah – enjoying blessing of God
- Rabiah – fourth
- Rahmah – kind and compassionate
- Ruqayyah – name of the prophet daughter
- Rahid – righteous
- Safiyah – pure and serene heart
- Sakinah –peace of mind
- Salimah – a jovial companion
- Shukriyah – thanksgivings
- Sumayyah – a proper name
- Salim – safe
- Talatu – female child born on Tuesday
- Tahir – pure
- Umar – lifetime
- Usman – companion
- Yakubu – Jacob
- Yohanna – john
- Yusuf – Joseph
- Zahrah – flower
- Zakiyyah – pure
- Zainab – name of prophet daughter
- Zaytum – olive
- Zubaydah – radiant
See: Yoruba Names And Their Meanings
Before you leave… help us build the largest list of Hausa names and their meanings. Use the comment box below to drop any name we missed. Please??
ilemona adah yusuf says
oh, ALLAH include my name pls
Nabila says
These are not hausa names. Most of them are arabic names.
saladin says
Most of these are Arabic names. I would love typical hausa names
W says
These are mostly islamic names
Ola Ope says
Yerima – Prince
Dogo – Tall
Wada – Short
Samira Shehu says
Hi,
Well done on making an effort. But only 13 of these names are Hausa. All the rest are actually Arabic. Heres an excerpt from an interesting post on kanoonline.com that explains this phenomenon in Hausa land.
''It is true that authentic Hausa names are disappearing, and being replaced with more "stylistic" modern ones, some based on Arabic (rather than Islamic) practices, while others are reflections of a new dynamism of nomenclature. I argue, however, that such transformations are essentially urban; and even within urban settings, elitist. Somehow I don't see the daughter of a Dan Achaba (motor cycle taxi driver) calling him "Daddy", which is a common parental referent for the DSTV generation of parents; nor the ground-nut-selling-at-motor-park daughter of a village woman calling her mother "Mommy".
I am guilty of such stylized naming myself. My children are Ibtihal, Intissar, Munzir and Ifrah. The first two — female — are words (piety, victory) but used within an Islamic context. Munzir is Muhammad, while Ifrah is a straightforward word which means happiness. She was given name after we lost Mutahhar (another Muhammad) and we see her as a joy-bringer. Now imagine if we had called her "Madadi" or "Farin Ciki"! Ethnic psychology is at work here. For instance, a niece of mine is called Mahjubah — veil/curtain. Imagine her being called "Labule" Mahjubah gives here a stylistic distinction — being lost in meaning — that somehow gives the impression of ultra-coolness, even though it has no spiritual connotation to Islam. Give a typical Hausa urbanite a choice between Yassar and Maikudi, he'd probably chose Yassar — yet the mean the same thing! The traditional Hausa names, despite being unfashionable, ARE reflections of Hausa identity, for they are unique to the Hausa, no one else. Adopting the stylized names is not necessarily a reflection of being modern, it simply a denial of identity. So why do we shift away from the traditional Hausa names? I think the main answer is a desire to cleanse our collective memory of the antecedent Maguzanci (Hausa paganistic totemism) and reaffirm either a more Islamic, or more neutral globalized identity, especially among urban elites.The Muslim Hausa of Nigeria is unique in this process by shifting away from the ancestral naming. Yoruba Muslims, for instance, often retain their totemistic traditional names (e.g. Abdulganiyyu Adekunle); not the Muslim Hausa. For the Hausa, "suna linzami" (your name leads you) and as Qur'an reveals the name is a critical referent to your own personality. The Ethnic Psychology I referred to gives modern Muslim Hausa a window of opportunity of adopting Arabic-sounding names that give them a psychological affinity with Islam, even if the Arabic names themselves have no meaning superior to their Hausa equivalents — for not all Arabs are Muslim (something which many Hausa find difficult to understand).Thus giving your child a more traditional name (whose meaning is often lost) might be seen as harking back to Maguzanci status — as I said, it is really psychological, not cultural''
What names do the Hausa give themselves BEFORE the advent of Islam