Abraham · English boy’s name

Abraham in Hawaiian is ʻAperahama

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when B became P, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end.

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ah·peh·rah·HAH·mah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Abraham in Hawaiian?

Abraham is ʻAperahama in Hawaiian, said ah-peh-rah-HAH-mah.

How Abraham became ʻAperahama

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Abraham B became P, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end. Hawaiian does not run two consonants together, and every syllable ends on a vowel. A Hawaiian word cannot finish on a consonant, which is where the last vowel comes from. The ʻokina at the front is a consonant in Hawaiian, the catch in the voice before the first vowel.

How to say ʻAperahama

Say it ah-peh-rah-HAH-mah, leaning on HAH, sounding every vowel: a as in “father”, e as in “bet”. The ʻokina (ʻ) is a catch in the voice, the break in the middle of “uh-oh”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

Where Abraham comes from

Abraham is the Hebrew name of the patriarch of Genesis, traditionally explained as father of many nations. It was taken up by Protestants in the 1600s and later carried by Abraham Lincoln.

The Hawaiian form, ʻAperahama, keeps an r that Hawaiian normally turns into l. It follows the spelling of the Hawaiian Bible, where some biblical names kept their foreign letters.

Sources the Pukui and Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary, Place Names of Hawaii, Nānā i ke Kumu, wehewehe.org, Wiktionary's Hawaiian given names and U.S. Social Security baby-name records. How this site is compiled · Send a correction

Questions people ask

What is Abraham in Hawaiian?

Abraham is ʻAperahama in Hawaiian, pronounced ah-peh-rah-HAH-mah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s.

How do you pronounce ʻAperahama?

ah-peh-rah-HAH-mah, with the stress on HAH.

Why does ʻAperahama look so different from Abraham?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Abraham, B became P, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end.

Is ʻAperahama a real Hawaiian name?

Yes, as a borrowed name. Hawaiian families have used ʻAperahama since the 1800s, but it is Abraham respelled, not a name built from Hawaiian words.

All 164 English names in Hawaiian · Hawaiian boy's names