Long Hawaiian Names
Long Hawaiian names are full phrases, and the longest are the names of chiefs and queens. Each one here is broken into its words and marked for stress, so a six-syllable name is no harder than a two-syllable one.
The longest Hawaiian names
Four-syllable Hawaiian names
Why Hawaiian names get long
A Hawaiian name is a phrase. Ka-lani-ana-ʻole is the royal chief without measure. Ke-ōpū-o-lani is the gathering of the clouds of heaven. Ka-lei-kau-maka is the lei placed before the eyes, a beloved child. Each piece is an ordinary word, and old Hawaiian names could run to a dozen of them, recording an event, an ancestor, and a hope for the child all at once. The longest name on record belonged to a nineteenth-century chiefess and ran past eighty letters.
How to say a long Hawaiian name
Break it into its words, then say each word with the stress on its second-to-last syllable. The name pages on this site show the breakdown. Kalanianaʻole is ka-la-ni-a-na-ʻo-le, said kah-lah-nee-ah-nah-OH-leh. Every vowel is spoken, the ʻokina is a brief pause, and a kahakō holds the vowel longer. Nobody in Hawaiʻi rushes a long name, and nobody expects a newcomer to either.
Long names in daily use
Long names are usually middle names today, shortened in conversation to the first word or two. A girl named Kehaulani is Kehau to her family, Kaʻiulani is Kaʻiu, and Kealohilani is Lohi. The full name is used on documents, at ceremonies, and by grandparents. The middle names page explains that tradition.