Katherine · English girl’s name

Katherine in Hawaiian is Kakalina

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

Say it

kah·kah·LEE·nah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Katherine in Hawaiian?

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

How Katherine became Kakalina

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Katherine 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.

Where Katherine comes from

Katherine goes back to the Greek Aikaterine, whose original meaning is unknown. Early Christians linked it to katharos, pure, which is where the th in the English spelling comes from. Saint Catherine of Alexandria spread it across medieval Europe.

The Hawaiian form, Kakalina, changes the th to k and the r to l, the same repairs Hawaiian made to every name containing those sounds.

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 Katherine in Hawaiian?

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

How do you pronounce Kakalina?

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

Why does Kakalina look so different from Katherine?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Katherine, 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 Katherine respelled, not a name built from Hawaiian words.

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