What does Kamakana mean in Hawaiian?
Kamakana is a Hawaiian unisex name that means the gift. The name comes from ka (the) + makana (gift). It is pronounced kah-mah-KAH-nah, with 4 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
A modern combination of common Hawaiian name elements rather than a traditional name.
Kamakana belongs with other Hawaiian names about gift.
Kamakana: a newer name that real families use
Kamakana is ka (the) joined to makana (gift), so it means the gift. It follows the same pattern as long-established names such as Kalani (the heavens) and Kekoa (the brave one), where ka or ke turns an ordinary word into a name.
This site labels Kamakana a modern combination because it has no entry among documented Hawaiian given names, unlike Makana itself. That does not mean nobody carries it. U.S. Social Security records list boys named Kamakana in 2002, 2009 and 2014, 17 in all, ten of them born in Hawaiʻi, and years when fewer than five babies received it do not appear in the records, so the true number is higher.
If you are choosing between the two, Makana is the older and more widely given name, recorded in U.S. births every year since 1993. Kamakana says the same thing with the article in front, and it is rare enough that a child is unlikely to share it.
The words inside Kamakana
makana means gift, present, reward and appears in 2 Hawaiian names, among them Makana.
How to pronounce Kamakana
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kamakana are a as in “father”. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kamakana a boy or girl name?
Kamakana is unisex. Hawaiian has no grammatical gender, and most traditional names were given to any child.
How well recorded is Kamakana?
Kamakana is a modern formation rather than a name found in the older sources. Its parts are ordinary Hawaiian words and it is built the way many contemporary Hawaiian names are built, but it is not attested in Pukui–Elbert as a traditional given name.