What does Kalākaua mean in Hawaiian?
Kalākaua is a Hawaiian boy name that means the day of battle. The name comes from ka (the) + lā (day) + kaua (battle). It is pronounced kah-LAH-kow-ah, with 4 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
King David Kalākaua, the 'Merrie Monarch', revived hula and Hawaiian culture.
Kalākaua belongs with other Hawaiian names about royalty and warrior.
King Kalākaua
David Kalākaua reigned from 1874 to 1891 and is remembered as the Merrie Monarch. He reversed decades of suppression, bringing hula back into public performance at his coronation, encouraging Hawaiian-language newspapers, and commissioning the collection of chants and genealogies that preserved a great deal of what survives.
He built ʻIolani Palace, which had electric light before the White House did, and was the first head of state to circumnavigate the globe. He wrote the words to 'Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī', now the state song.
The Merrie Monarch Festival, the largest hula competition in the world, is named for him. He was addressed as Kāwika, the Hawaiian form of David.
The words inside Kalākaua
lā means sun, day and appears in 6 Hawaiian names, among them Kala, Haleakalā, Kalāhiki, Lā.
kaua means war, battle.
How to pronounce Kalākaua
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kalākaua are a as in “father”, u as “oo”. A vowel with a line over it (kahakō) is held slightly longer. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kalākaua a boy or girl name?
Kalākaua is used mainly as a boy's name, though Hawaiian itself has no grammatical gender.
How often Kalākaua is given in the U.S.
No year from 1880 to 2023 saw five or more U.S. babies named Kalākaua, and it never reaches five in the Hawaiʻi records either, so it is rare as a first name.
How well recorded is Kalākaua?
Kalākaua is built from vocabulary recorded in Pukui–Elbert, the standard Hawaiian dictionary, but it has no entry among documented Hawaiian given names.