Skip to content
Hawaiian Name Finder

Mary · English girl’s name

Mary in Hawaiian is Malia

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when R became L, and Y became I.

Translate another name

Say it

mah·LEE·ah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Mary in Hawaiian?

Mary is Malia in Hawaiian, said mah-LEE-ah. The same form covers Maria, because Hawaiian writes both spellings the same way.

How Mary became Malia

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Mary R became L, and Y became I.

Other recorded spellings of Mary

Hawaiian records do not settle on one spelling for every borrowed name. Alongside Malia, Mary was also written Meleana. Each is a real Hawaiian writing of the name rather than a variant anyone invented; which one a family used came down to who was doing the writing, and when.

Malia 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 Malia

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

Where Mary comes from

Mary is the English form of Maria, the Greek and Latin spelling of the Hebrew Miryam, Miriam, the sister of Moses. Its meaning is disputed. As the name of the mother of Jesus it became the most widespread woman's name in Christian Europe.

In Hawaiian it became Malia, one of the most widely used Hawaiian forms of any English name, and the same form serves for Maria.

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 Mary in Hawaiian?

Mary is Malia in Hawaiian, pronounced mah-LEE-ah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s, and it covers Maria as well.

How do you pronounce Malia?

mah-LEE-ah, with the stress on LEE.

Why does Malia look so different from Mary?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Mary, R became L, and Y became I.

Is Malia a real Hawaiian name?

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

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