Steven · English boy’s name

Steven in Hawaiian is Kepano

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when S became K, T became K, V fell away, 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 Steven in Hawaiian?

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

How Steven became Kepano

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Steven S became K, T became K, V fell away, 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.

Steven and Stephen

Steven is a phonetic spelling of Stephen, the Greek Stephanos, crown, that became common in the United States in the twentieth century. It says the name the way it sounds rather than the way the Greek was spelled.

Since Hawaiian spells by sound, it makes no distinction between the two. Steven and Stephen are both Kepano, and the v and ph that separate them in English both disappear.

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 Steven in Hawaiian?

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

How do you pronounce Kepano?

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

Why does Kepano look so different from Steven?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Steven, S became K, T became K, V fell away, 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 Steven respelled, not a name built from Hawaiian words.

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