Burkina Faso in other languages: exonyms, Ouagadougou and regions

Burkina from Mooré, Faso from Dyula

The country took the name Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984. Until then it was Upper Volta, Haute-Volta in French, after the upper courses of the Black, Red and White Volta. The new name joins words from two of its languages: burkina, upright, from Mooré, and faso, fatherland or literally father’s house, from Dyula. The demonym Burkinabè adds a Fula suffix.

Because the name is not French, most languages copy it unchanged, and the spelling alone shows how each one handles a foreign k and a final o. Portuguese, Nahuatl and Norman French write qu, Burquina; Sicilian Burchina Fasu. Irish writes Buircíne Fasó, and Scottish Gaelic lenites the second word, Buircina Fhaso. Haitian Creole has Boukina Faso, Igbo Buakina Faso, Quechua Burkina Phasu, and Volapük reduces it to Burkinän.

Ouagadougou, the capital, starts with the French spelling ou for w. Languages that write by sound turn it into Wagadugu (Hausa, Amharic ዋጋዱጉ) or into Uagadugu, the form shared by Portuguese, Turkish, Basque and the Cyrillic Уагадугу; Spanish adds an accent, Uagadugú.

Seventeen regions with local names

The reform announced in July 2025 raised the number of regions from 13 to 17 and the provinces from 45 to 47, and gave the regions names from local languages in place of the French compass points. Three old regions were divided: Boucle du Mouhoun into Bankui and Sourou, Est into Goulmou, Sirba and Tapoa, Sahel into Liptako and Soum. The other ten were renamed.

Several names recall rivers and old states. Nakambé is the river known in French as the White Volta, Guiriko an 18th-century kingdom whose capital was Sya, today Bobo-Dioulasso, and Kadiogo a stream near the palace of the Moogo Naaba. Kuilsé is Mooré for watercourse.