What is Naomi in Hawaiian?
Naomi is Naomi in Hawaiian, said nah-OH-mee. 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 Naomi became Naomi
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.
Naomi came through untouched. Every letter in it is already a Hawaiian letter, so there was nothing to swap and nothing to add, which is why the English and Hawaiian spellings match.
How to say Naomi
Say it nah-OH-mee. 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.