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The Most Common Last Name in Every African Country

Nandi Wabazulu

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I humbly disagree with mine. I don't know where the hell they got this.

Is this true for your country?
 

Engraced

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Diallo is true for Guinea
Mensah is accurate for Ghana
Deng is a very popular s.sudanese surname

Ibrahim might be true for Northern Nigeria but definitely not southern Nigeria.
 

malibue7

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This is interesting! I was expecting the most common last name for Somalia to either be “Abdi” or “Ali”.

“Ndiaye” for Senegal & “Tesfaye” for Ethiopia isn’t surprising either.
 

malibue7

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It says Ibrahim for Nigeria is ancestral. Does anyone know where it comes from/it’s history? I don’t want to sound ignorant, but is it Hausa?
 

AwonOshi

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It says Ibrahim for Nigeria is ancestral. Does anyone know where it comes from/it’s history? I don’t want to sound ignorant, but is it Hausa?
It is an Islamic name. My mother is Yoruba and her brothers name is Ibrahim. There are plenty Ibrahims in my family and we are not Hausa.
 

MicheleK

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I wanted to say that it was BS for mine but then I read that it specified that it was a personal characteristic. So yeah I might let it slide.
 

malibue7

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It is an Islamic name. My mother is Yoruba and her brothers name is Ibrahim. There are plenty Ibrahims in my family and we are not Hausa.

Ok thank you. I think the reason I said Hausa is because I know they practice Islam...completely forgetting that Yorubas practice Islam & the fact that Islam is the most practiced religion in Nigeria.
 
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AwonOshi

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Mensah is so accurate for Ghanaians and Kamara for Sierra Leonians. Every other Sierra Leonian I come across has the name Kamara, Koroma or Conteh.
 

AwonOshi

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@AwonOshi Do you know why that specific name is so common?
Ibrahim is a popular Islamic name. Similar to like how Mary, John, David are popular Christian names.

With Nigeria's large population are the Islamic majority, it's no surprise Ibrahim is the most common.
 

thewaterworks

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Ibrahim is a popular Islamic name. Similar to like how Mary, John, David are popular Christian names.

With Nigeria's large population are the Islamic majority, it's no surprise Ibrahim is the most common.
It's also just Abraham in Arabic (and Hausa), so Northern Nigerian Christians have it as a last name too.
 

malibue7

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Ibrahim is a popular Islamic name. Similar to like how Mary, John, David are popular Christian names.

With Nigeria's large population are the Islamic majority, it's no surprise Ibrahim is the most common.

Ok, thank you for explaining!
 

thewaterworks

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Burkina Faso is super accurate - almost all Burkinabe's I've met were Ouedraogo. Same for Jallow in Gambia
 

Absy94

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For Mensah, yeah that's about right lol. It's even more so the case in our communities abroad.
 

thewaterworks

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Diallo is true for Guinea
Mensah is accurate for Ghana
Deng is a very popular s.sudanese surname

Ibrahim might be true for Northern Nigeria but definitely not southern Nigeria.
But Hausa people specifically outnumber other groups of Nigerians, so numbers wise, it makes sense.

The same way a Zulu last name would be more popular in SA than a Venda or Bapedi one since their ethnic groups have less people.
 

Makoto Kino

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Lawson took me out. I thought that Liberia would have a European last name, but nope. Isn't Ethiopia The Weeknd's last name?
 

MicheleK

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Which one is from your country? What do do you feel is the most common name there?
Cameroon but the thing is the name Ngo is particular to only one ethnic group and is given to only young unmarried women. It's like Miss. So that's why it is considered on their map like the most popular.

I'm from another ethnic group from the biggest (largest) region in Cameroun and we do have common names there but depending on the village it will be spelled differently so we don't really have a most common name nationally. Regionally it might be different.
 

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