What is Dorothy in Hawaiian?
Dorothy is Kolokea in Hawaiian, said koh-loh-KEH-ah.
How Dorothy became Kolokea
Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Dorothy D became K, R became L, T became K, Y fell away, and a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together. Hawaiian does not run two consonants together, and every syllable ends on a vowel.
Kolokea as a Hawaiian name
Kolokea is not only a borrowed spelling. It reads as Hawaiian in its own right, meaning “to creep, white”, and it is given as a girl's name in Hawaiʻi today. Its own page has the full meaning, the word it is built from, and names that go with it.
How to say Kolokea
Say it koh-loh-KEH-ah, leaning on KEH, sounding every vowel: o as in “go”, e as in “bet”, a as in “father”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.