Stephen · English boy’s name

Stephen in Hawaiian is Kepano

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

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keh·PAH·noh

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Stephen in Hawaiian?

Stephen is Kepano in Hawaiian, said keh-PAH-noh. The same form covers Steven, because Hawaiian writes both spellings the same way.

How Stephen became Kepano

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Stephen S became K, T became K, 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.

Kepano 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 Kepano

Say it keh-PAH-noh, leaning on PAH, sounding every vowel: e as in “bet”, a as in “father”, o as in “go”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

Where Stephen comes from

Stephen is the Greek Stephanos, a crown or victor's wreath. It entered Christian naming through Saint Stephen, remembered in the Book of Acts as the first Christian martyr, and spread across Europe with his cult.

The ph is the Greek spelling of an f sound. Hawaiian had neither ph nor f, so the Hawaiian form Kepano writes it as p.

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 Stephen in Hawaiian?

Stephen is Kepano in Hawaiian, pronounced keh-PAH-noh. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s, and it covers Steven as well.

How do you pronounce Kepano?

keh-PAH-noh, with the stress on PAH.

Why does Kepano look so different from Stephen?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Stephen, S became K, T became K, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end.

Is Kepano a real Hawaiian name?

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

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