Common Hawaiian Names

The Hawaiian names given most often in the United States, counted from Social Security records of every baby born from 2014 to 2023. Only names documented as Hawaiian are ranked, and spellings that mostly belong to another language are listed separately rather than counted as Hawaiian.

“Common” here means one thing: how many babies received the name. The count is the number of U.S. births recorded by the Social Security Administration, which lists every name given to at least five babies of one sex in a year. It is not a guess, a search trend or a popularity score. The numbers beside each name are births from 2014 to 2023, the most recent decade in the national dataset this page is built from.

Most common Hawaiian girl names

Leilani leads with 26,550 girls, more than twice the 11,878 named Malia. Below the top five, every name was given to fewer than 2,000 girls over the ten years.

Most common Hawaiian boy names

Boys’ names are given less often than girls’. Koa leads, and names built on koa (brave, warrior) take several of the top places.

The most common Hawaiian names in Hawaiʻi

Counting only babies born in Hawaiʻi, 2012 to 2021, the order changes. Names that are rare on the mainland, such as Mahina and Anela, rank near the top at home. Hawaiʻi records only list a name when five or more babies of one sex born in the state receive it in a year, so smaller names do not appear. Kai, left out below because its spelling is shared, was given to 383 Hawaiʻi-born boys.

Girls born in Hawaiʻi

Boys born in Hawaiʻi

Kai, and other names that are not only Hawaiian

Social Security records drop the ʻokina and kahakō and count spellings, not origins. These Hawaiian names share a spelling with a name that is more common in another language, so most of their births are not the Hawaiian name. Their totals, both sexes combined, are shown for reference and left out of the ranking above.

Kaisea40,486
also a Scandinavian, German, Japanese and Chinese name.
ʻElenaHawaiian form of Ellen37,007
mostly the Spanish, Italian and Greek name.
LilianaHawaiian form of Lilian26,622
mostly the Spanish and Italian form of Lillian.
LukaHawaiian form of Luke or Ruth17,910
mostly the Slavic form of Luke.
Alanaawakening, an offering14,930
mostly the Irish and English name.
Kamilacamellia11,658
mostly the Slavic and Arabic name.
Kāneman, god of creation, light and fresh water8,770
the SSA spelling Kane is mostly the Irish and English name.
Noafreedom, free from restriction7,042
mostly the Hebrew girl's name.
HelenaHawaiian form of Helen6,290
mostly the European name.
ʻEmeliaHawaiian form of Emilia5,928
mostly a spelling of Amelia.
Leagoddess of canoe builders, Hawaiian form of Leah3,799
mostly the French and German form of Leah.
Kianadivine, Hawaiian form of Diana3,190
mostly an American name of its own.
Lilialily2,524
mostly the Spanish and Slavic name.
Kaliathe kalia tree, modern Hawaiian-style name1,852
mostly an American name of its own.

What makes a name common in Hawaiʻi

Most common Hawaiian names are short phrases made from the words that appear in hundreds of names: lani (heaven), lei (garland, beloved child), kai (sea), koa (brave) and nani (beauty). The glossary of words used in names lists each one with every name that uses it. In Hawaiʻi a Hawaiian name is very often a middle name, carried alongside an English first name, a practice the middle names page explains.

How this list was made

Every name here is documented as a Hawaiian given name in Wiktionary’s category of Hawaiian names. The site also lists modern combinations of Hawaiian words, and those are left out: a combination made up recently can match the spelling of an unrelated name and would inflate the count. Each documented name was matched to its plain spelling in the Social Security national file and its births for 2014 to 2023 added up, separately for girls and boys. A name appears in a list if at least 50 babies of that sex received it. The popularity labels on individual name pages are an editorial estimate and are not the source of this ranking.

Looking for something less common? The full list of Hawaiian names and meanings has every name on the site, and Hawaiian last names ranks family names the same way, by U.S. census count.

Sources

Hawaiian Dictionary, Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1986. Used for word meanings and spellings.
Place Names of Hawaii, Pukui, Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1974. Used for island, town, and volcano names.
Nānā i ke Kumu (Look to the Source), Pukui, Haertig, and Lee, Queen Liliʻuokalani Children's Center, 1972. Used for naming customs.
Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (wehewehe.org), Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library. Used for checking each word against the online dictionary.
Hawaiian given names, Wiktionary category, Creative Commons BY-SA. Used for attested names and gender.
Baby names from Social Security card applications, national and state data, U.S. Social Security Administration, national 1880 to 2023 and Hawaiʻi 1910 to 2021. Used for birth counts in the U.S. and in Hawaiʻi.

Uncertain meanings are marked on the page. Modern combinations of name elements are labeled as such. Read how this site is compiled or send a correction.

Questions people ask

What is the most common Hawaiian name?

Leilani (heavenly lei, royal child). 26,550 American girls were given it from 2014 to 2023, more than any other name with a distinctly Hawaiian spelling. The most common Hawaiian boy's name over the same years was Koa (brave, bold, fearless, the koa tree), with 4,313. Kai is given more often than either, but the spelling is shared with Scandinavian, German and Japanese names, so its count is not a measure of the Hawaiian name alone.

What is a typical Hawaiian name?

A short phrase built from ordinary words. Of the 311 documented Hawaiian names on this site, 37 contain lani (heaven, sky, royal), as in Leilani and Kalani, and 66 begin with ka or ke, the word for "the", as in Kekoa (the brave one) and Kaleo (the voice). Names drawn from nature, such as Koa, Maile and Moana, are the other common type.

What are the most common Hawaiian girl names?

Leilani, Malia, Kailani, Kalani, Nalani, Noelani, in that order by U.S. births from 2014 to 2023.

What are the most common Hawaiian boy names?

Koa, Keanu, Kaleo, Kainoa, Keoni, Makaio, in that order by U.S. births from 2014 to 2023.

Are these counts for Hawaiʻi or the whole U.S.?

Both. The main lists count births across the United States from 2014 to 2023. The Hawaiʻi lists count babies born in Hawaiʻi from 2012 to 2021, the latest years in the Social Security state file. The two orders differ a good deal: Malia leads for girls born in Hawaiʻi, and Kainoa for boys.

What is the most common Hawaiian name in Hawaiʻi?

Among babies born in Hawaiʻi from 2012 to 2021, Malia (178 girls) and Kainoa (169 boys) were the most common names with a distinctly Hawaiian spelling. Kai was given to 383 Hawaiʻi-born boys, more than either, though its spelling is shared with other languages.