Catherine · English girl’s name

Catherine in Hawaiian is Kakalina

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when C became K, R became L, T became K, and the final e became a.

Translate another name

Say it

kah·kah·LEE·nah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Catherine in Hawaiian?

Catherine is Kakalina in Hawaiian, said kah-kah-LEE-nah. The same form covers Katherine, because Hawaiian writes both spellings the same way.

How Catherine became Kakalina

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Catherine C became K, R became L, T became K, and the final e became a.

Kakalina 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 Kakalina

Say it kah-kah-LEE-nah, leaning on LEE, sounding every vowel: a as in “father”, i as “ee”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

Catherine with a C

Catherine is the same name as Katherine, from the Greek Aikaterine, spelled with the initial C used in French and in older English. Queens of France and England carried both spellings.

Hawaiian has no C, so both spellings become Kakalina, which begins with the K that English sometimes writes as C.

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 Catherine in Hawaiian?

Catherine is Kakalina in Hawaiian, pronounced kah-kah-LEE-nah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s, and it covers Katherine as well.

How do you pronounce Kakalina?

kah-kah-LEE-nah, with the stress on LEE.

Why does Kakalina look so different from Catherine?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Catherine, C became K, R became L, T became K, and the final e became a.

Is Kakalina a real Hawaiian name?

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

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