About this site
Hawaiian Name Finder is a free reference for Hawaiian first names, surnames, and place names, built to be searchable by meaning.
Where the meanings come from
Hawaiian names are mostly transparent compounds of everyday words, so each entry is broken down word by word. The definitions follow the Hawaiian Dictionary by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert (University of Hawaiʻi Press) and Place Names of Hawaii by Pukui, Elbert, and Mookini. Names of historical figures are checked against the Hawaiian State Archives and the Bishop Museum.
Where a name has a popular meaning that the dictionary does not support, the entry says so and gives the popular reading with a caveat. Modern coinages that are Hawaiian in sound but not in origin (Kaia, Kiona) are labeled as such.
How each name is checked
Every name carries a label in its “At a glance” box. Documented given name means the name is recorded as a Hawaiian given name in a published source, with a link to the Wiktionary entry that cites it; 313 names carry this label. Recorded English form marks the Hawaiian spellings of English and biblical names used since the 1800s, such as Kāwika for David. Modern combination marks a name assembled from standard Hawaiian name elements in a standard pattern that we have not found in a published list of given names. We keep only those that have evidence of real use, such as birth records, and each of those pages says what that evidence is. Traditional is used for the remaining names taken from the dictionaries and historical records.
The word-by-word breakdown on each page is built from a glossary of 274 Hawaiian words, each defined from the Pukui and Elbert dictionary and linked to the online edition at wehewehe.org so you can verify it yourself.
Spelling
Names are written with the ʻokina and kahakō where they are documented. URLs and search use the plain spelling, so searching “kaiulani” finds Kaʻiulani. The pronunciation guide explains both marks.
Popularity
The popularity label on each name (very rare to popular) is an editorial estimate of how familiar a name is, not a count of births. Where the site does give counts, on the common names and last names pages, they come from U.S. Social Security Administration baby-name data and the U.S. Census Bureau’s surname file, and each page says which.
Corrections
The site currently lists 534 first names and is expanding. If you know a name that is missing, or a meaning that should be corrected, email hello@hawaiiannamefinder.com. Contributions from Hawaiian speakers are especially welcome.