What does Kaʻiana mean in Hawaiian?
Kaʻiana is a Hawaiian boy name that means an 18th-century high chief of Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi. The name comes from chiefly name. It is pronounced kah-ee-AH-nah, with 3 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Kaʻiana belongs with other Hawaiian names about royalty and warrior.
Kaʻiana, the chief who went abroad
Kaʻiana was a high chief of the late 1700s, a striking figure well over six feet tall by the accounts of the foreign captains who met him. In 1787 he sailed with the British trader John Meares to China and the Northwest Coast, one of the first Hawaiians to travel so far, and returned with firearms.
He fought for Kamehameha during the wars of unification, then changed sides, and was killed at the Battle of Nuʻuanu in 1795. The name carries that history for anyone who knows it.
How to pronounce Kaʻiana
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kaʻiana are a as in “father”, i as “ee”. The ʻokina (ʻ) in Kaʻiana is a short pause, like the break in “uh-oh”. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kaʻiana a boy or girl name?
Kaʻiana is listed here as a boy's name. Of the 226 U.S. babies given it, 100% were girls and 0% boys.
How often Kaʻiana is given in the U.S.
Social Security records show 226 U.S. babies named Kaʻiana from 1995 to 2023, all girls, counted as Kaiana because the records drop the ʻokina and kahakō. It appears in 24 of those 29 years. Its peak was 2011, with 16. The 2014 to 2023 total of 85 is fewer than in all earlier years combined. In the Hawaiʻi records it never reaches five births of one sex in a year, the level at which a name is listed. Although it is listed here as a boy's name, more girls than boys have been given it in the U.S.
How well recorded is Kaʻiana?
Kaʻiana is built from vocabulary recorded in Pukui–Elbert, the standard Hawaiian dictionary, but it has no entry among documented Hawaiian given names.