Meaning: Its source is Yao, an Akan name meaning "Boy born on Thursday."

Languages: This boy's name is used in Ewe.

Narrative: This name may have entered the Ewe language from Akan.

The Akan people of Ghana are descendants of the people of the Ashanti empire. This empire dominated the coastal people of present-day Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin in the 17th and 18th centuries.