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Hawaiian Name Finder

Anna · English girl’s name

Anna in Hawaiian is ʻAna

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when the doubled consonant was written once.

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AH·nah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Anna in Hawaiian?

Anna is ʻAna in Hawaiian, said AH-nah. The same form covers Ann and Anne, because Hawaiian writes all of these spellings the same way.

How Anna became ʻAna

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Anna the doubled consonant was written once. Hawaiian never writes a consonant twice, so the pair collapses to one. The ʻokina at the front is a consonant in Hawaiian, the catch in the voice before the first vowel.

Not to be confused with ana, a different Hawaiian word meaning “cave”.

How to say ʻAna

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

Anna, the oldest spelling

Anna is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew Hannah, grace or favour, and the form used in the New Testament, where Anna is a prophetess in the Temple. It is the spelling most European languages still use.

It is also the spelling closest to Hawaiian. ʻAna only adds the ʻokina at the front and writes the doubled n once.

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 Anna in Hawaiian?

Anna is ʻAna in Hawaiian, pronounced AH-nah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s, and it covers Ann and Anne as well.

How do you pronounce ʻAna?

AH-nah, with the stress on AH.

Why does ʻAna look so different from Anna?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Anna, the doubled consonant was written once.

Is ʻAna a real Hawaiian name?

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

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