What does Kauʻilani mean in Hawaiian?
Kauʻilani is a Hawaiian girl name that means the heavenly beauty. The name comes from ka (the) + uʻi (beauty) + lani (heaven). It is pronounced kow-ee-LAH-nee, with 4 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Kauʻilani belongs with other Hawaiian names about beauty and heaven.
Heavenly beauty
Kauʻilani is ka (the), uʻi (youthful beauty) and lani (heaven). Uʻi is specifically the beauty of youth, fresh and handsome, and it is used of young men as well as young women.
The ʻokina in uʻi is a real consonant, a stop in the voice, so the name is said kah-oo-ee-LAH-nee with every vowel sounded. Without the article it is Uʻilani, which has its own page.
The words inside Kauʻilani
uʻi means youthful, beautiful and appears in 5 Hawaiian names, among them Kauʻi, Uilama, Uʻilani, Uʻi.
lani means sky, heaven and appears in 53 Hawaiian names, among them Kailani, Kalani, Leilani, Lani.
How to pronounce Kauʻilani
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kauʻilani are a as in “father”, u as “oo”, i as “ee”. The ʻokina (ʻ) in Kauʻilani is a short pause, like the break in “uh-oh”. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kauʻilani a boy or girl name?
Kauʻilani is used mainly as a girl's name, though Hawaiian itself has no grammatical gender.
How often Kauʻilani is given in the U.S.
No year from 1880 to 2023 saw five or more U.S. babies named Kauʻilani, and it never reaches five in the Hawaiʻi records either, so it is rare as a first name.
How well recorded is Kauʻilani?
Kauʻilani has its own entry among Wiktionary’s documented Hawaiian given names.