Hawaiian Girl Names with Meanings

How popular are Hawaiian girl names?

Hawaiian girl names have moved from a regional choice to a national one in the space of a generation. Leilani is the clearest example. Social Security Administration records show it climbing steadily through the 2010s and it has sat inside the top 100 American girl names since 2020, ahead of many long-established English names. Malia rose sharply after 2009, when Malia Obama became a household name, and has stayed in the top 500 since. Kailani, Kalani, Alana, Kiana, Leia, and Moana are the other Hawaiian girl names that appear in the national top 1,000, and Moana in particular jumped after the 2016 film.

In Hawaiʻi itself the picture is different. Leilani, Malia, Kailani, and Nalani are given to girls in every district, but so are names that mainland parents rarely meet, such as Kaʻiulani, Puanani, Kehaulani, and Uʻilani. Parents in the islands are also far more likely to give a Hawaiian name as a middle name, often one chosen by a grandparent, alongside an English first name. If you want a name that is recognizably Hawaiian but not yet common outside the islands, the middle-name tradition is a good place to look.

What makes a Hawaiian girl name

Hawaiian has no grammatical gender and traditional names were given to any child, so what reads as a girl name today is mostly a matter of modern habit. A handful of patterns account for most of it.

The ending lani is the single most common feature. It means both heaven and high rank, so a name like Pualani reads as heavenly flower and also as royal child. Because every element is an everyday word, a Hawaiian girl name is usually a small phrase that any speaker can read. That is why the finder above lets you search by meaning as well as by spelling.

A fourth group is easy to overlook. After missionaries arrived in 1820, Hawaiians adapted English and biblical names to the thirteen-letter Hawaiian alphabet. Malia is Mary, Kalena is Karen, Lahela is Rachel, Elikapeka is Elizabeth, and Kiana is Diana. These names have been carried by Hawaiian families for two centuries and belong on the list as much as any name built from lani. See your name in Hawaiian for the full set of equivalents.

Hawaiian naming customs

In old Hawaiʻi a name was not a label but a possession with its own mana, or spiritual power, and the way a name arrived mattered as much as what it meant. Mary Kawena Pukui recorded several kinds of names in Nānā i ke Kumu, and families still use the vocabulary.

• Inoa pō, a night name. A name revealed to a relative in a dream or vision before the birth. Such a name was expected to be used, and families told of children who fell ill until the dream name was given.
• Inoa hoʻomanaʻo, a commemorative name. It records an event around the birth, a storm, a voyage, a visit from a chief, or a loss in the family, so the name carries the family story forward.
• Inoa ʻūlāleo, a name heard as a voice with no visible speaker, treated with the same seriousness as a dream name.
• Inoa kūamuamu, an unpleasant or reviling name given deliberately, often to a child born after a sibling had died, on the belief that an ugly name would make the child unattractive to harmful spirits. Many were later exchanged for gentler names.
• Inoa kupuna, an ancestral name passed down within a family line. Names of high chiefs were kapu, restricted, and could not be used by commoners.

Two later laws shaped the names on this page. In 1860 the kingdom required every child to take the father’s given name as a surname and to carry a Christian first name, which is why so many Hawaiian family names today are simply old given names. That rule stood until 1967. Since then Hawaiian first names have returned in force, and the state now records the ʻokina and kahakō on birth certificates, so Kaʻiulani and Kaiulani are both legal spellings of the same name.

How to pronounce Hawaiian girl names

Hawaiian is one of the most regular languages to read aloud. Every vowel is pronounced, there are no silent letters, and the stress nearly always falls on the second-to-last syllable. Five rules cover almost every name here.

• Vowels are pure. A as in father, e as in bet, i as ee, o as in go, u as oo.
• Neighboring vowels are usually both spoken. Leilani is lay-LAH-nee, not lee-LAH-nee.
• The ʻokina (ʻ) is a short pause, like the catch in uh-oh. Kaʻiulani is kah-ee-oo-LAH-nee.
• A kahakō, the line over a vowel, holds the vowel longer and usually takes the stress. Hōkū is HOH-koo.
• W sounds like v after i or e, and often after a. Kāwika is kah-VEE-kah.

Every name page on this site shows the syllables with the stressed one marked. The pronunciation guide goes through each rule with more examples.

Rare and unique Hawaiian girl names

For something less common than Leilani, look at names built from mist, dew, and light. Kehaulani (heavenly dew), Kanoelani (the heavenly mist), Alaula (light of dawn), Kawena (glow of sunset), and Māhealani (the night of the full moon) are all authentic, all easy to say, and all rare outside Hawaiʻi. Names of native plants are another quiet group. Maile is the fragrant vine woven into lei, Lehua is the red blossom of the ʻōhiʻa tree, ʻIlima is the flower of Oʻahu, and Lauaʻe is a fern.

Names from Hawaiian tradition carry the most weight. Hina is the goddess of the moon, Hiʻiaka is the sister of Pele and the patron of hula, Laka is the goddess of the forest and of dance, and Lilinoe is the goddess of the mists on Mauna Kea. Families in Hawaiʻi use these with care, and so should anyone else, but they are among the most beautiful names in the language. Browse names from Hawaiian mythology, names meaning rain and mist, or names meaning light for more.

Short and long Hawaiian girl names

Short Hawaiian girl names work well as first names paired with a longer middle name. Pua (flower), Lei (garland), Nani (beauty), Noe (mist), Momi (pearl), Loke (rose), Lea (joy), Kai (sea), and Lani (heaven) are all two syllables or fewer. Long names read as full phrases and are the traditional style. Kaleikaumaka (the beloved child), Keōpūolani (the gathering of the clouds of heaven), Kapualani (the heavenly flower), and Leinaʻala (fragrant lei) are four to six syllables and still follow the stress rule, so they are easier to say than they look. Use the syllable filter in the finder above to browse by length.

Choosing a Hawaiian girl name respectfully

Hawaiian names are part of a living language with fewer than 25,000 native speakers, so a little care goes a long way. Check the meaning of the whole name, not just its parts, since the same word can be a plant, a place, and a quality at once. Keep the ʻokina and kahakō where they belong, or at least know where they go, because dropping them can change the meaning. Avoid names of specific royal figures and gods unless you have a connection to them. And say the name the Hawaiian way. A name chosen for its meaning deserves to be heard as its meaning.