Skip to content
Hawaiian Name Finder

Gabriel · English boy’s name

Gabriel in Hawaiian is Kapeliela

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

Translate another name

Say it

kah·peh·lee·EH·lah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Gabriel in Hawaiian?

Gabriel is Kapeliela in Hawaiian, said kah-peh-lee-EH-lah.

How Gabriel became Kapeliela

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Gabriel B became P, G became K, R became L, 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.

Kapeliela 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 Kapeliela

Say it kah-peh-lee-EH-lah, leaning on EH, sounding every vowel: a as in “father”, e as in “bet”, i as “ee”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

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 Gabriel in Hawaiian?

Gabriel is Kapeliela in Hawaiian, pronounced kah-peh-lee-EH-lah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s.

How do you pronounce Kapeliela?

kah-peh-lee-EH-lah, with the stress on EH.

Why does Kapeliela look so different from Gabriel?

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

Is Kapeliela a real Hawaiian name?

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

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