Agnes · English girl’s name

Agnes in Hawaiian is ʻAkeneki

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

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ah·keh·NEH·kee

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Agnes in Hawaiian?

Agnes is ʻAkeneki in Hawaiian, said ah-keh-NEH-kee.

How Agnes became ʻAkeneki

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Agnes G became K, S became K, 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.

ʻAkeneki has a page of its own as a Hawaiian given name, with its popularity and the names it is usually paired with.

How to say ʻAkeneki

Say it ah-keh-NEH-kee, leaning on NEH, sounding every vowel: a as in “father”, e as in “bet”, i as “ee”. 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 Agnes comes from

Agnes is the Latin form of the Greek Hagne, pure or holy. Saint Agnes, a young Roman martyr of the early 300s, made it one of the most common women's names of medieval Europe, and it was long associated with lambs because of the similar Latin agnus.

The Hawaiian form, ʻAkeneki, adds a vowel after the G, which became K, turns the S into K and ends with i. A two-syllable English name becomes a four-syllable Hawaiian one.

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 Agnes in Hawaiian?

Agnes is ʻAkeneki in Hawaiian, pronounced ah-keh-NEH-kee. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s.

How do you pronounce ʻAkeneki?

ah-keh-NEH-kee, with the stress on NEH.

Why does ʻAkeneki look so different from Agnes?

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

Is ʻAkeneki a real Hawaiian name?

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

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