Hawaiian Name Finder

Christopher · English boy’s name

Christopher in Hawaiian is Kilikopa

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

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kee·lee·KOH·pah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Christopher in Hawaiian?

Christopher is Kilikopa in Hawaiian, said kee-lee-KOH-pah. This is a recorded form rather than an invented one: it is how the name was written in Hawaiian-language newspapers, church records, and family Bibles from the 1800s onward.

How Christopher became Kilikopa

When the first Hawaiian alphabet was printed in 1826 it was fixed at thirteen letters, the five vowels and h, k, l, m, n, p, w, plus the ʻokina. Every foreign name had to be written with those letters and no others, so Hawaiians wrote what they heard, swapping each missing sound for the nearest one the language had.

In Christopher C became K, R became L, S became K, T became K, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and 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.

How to say Kilikopa

Say it kee-lee-KOH-pah. Hawaiian vowels never change value: a is “ah”, e is “eh”, i is “ee”, o is “oh”, u is “oo”. Every vowel is sounded, so there are as many syllables as there are vowels or vowel pairs. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

Questions people ask

What is Christopher in Hawaiian?

Christopher is Kilikopa in Hawaiian, pronounced kee-lee-KOH-pah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s.

How do you pronounce Kilikopa?

kee-lee-KOH-pah. Every vowel is sounded and the syllable written in capitals takes the stress. Hawaiian vowels keep one value each: a is "ah", e is "eh", i is "ee", o is "oh", u is "oo".

Why does Kilikopa look so different from Christopher?

Because the Hawaiian alphabet has only thirteen letters, the five vowels and h, k, l, m, n, p, w, plus the ʻokina. In this name C became K, R became L, S became K, T became K, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and and a vowel was added at the end.

Is Kilikopa a real Hawaiian name?

It is a real Hawaiian spelling, used by Hawaiian families for generations, but it is a borrowed name rather than one built from Hawaiian words. If you would rather have a name with a Hawaiian meaning of its own, the boy names list is the place to look.

All 130 English names in Hawaiian · Hawaiian boy's names