What does Kealiʻi mean in Hawaiian?
Kealiʻi is a Hawaiian boy name that means the chief. The name comes from ke (the) + aliʻi (chief). It is pronounced keh-ah-LEE-ee, with 4 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Kealiʻi belongs with other Hawaiian names about royalty.
Aliʻi, the chiefs
Kealiʻi is ke (the) and aliʻi, a chief or member of the chiefly class. The article is ke rather than ka because aliʻi begins with a, and Hawaiian uses ke before words that begin with k, e, a or o.
Aliʻi were the ruling class of old Hawaiʻi, and the word is still used for royalty and for leaders. Keliʻi is a shortened spelling of the same name and has its own page on this site.
The words inside Kealiʻi
aliʻi means chief, chiefess, royal and appears in 5 Hawaiian names, among them Ailani, Keliʻi, Aliʻi, Kūaliʻi.
How to pronounce Kealiʻi
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kealiʻi are e as in “bet”, a as in “father”, i as “ee”. The ʻokina (ʻ) in Kealiʻi is a short pause, like the break in “uh-oh”. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kealiʻi a boy or girl name?
Kealiʻi is listed here as a boy's name. Of the 269 U.S. babies given it, 0% were girls and 100% boys.
How often Kealiʻi is given in the U.S.
Social Security records show 269 U.S. babies named Kealiʻi from 1974 to 2023, all boys, counted as Kealii because the records drop the ʻokina and kahakō. It appears in 33 of those 50 years. Its peak was 1996, with 14. The 2014 to 2023 total of 71 is fewer than in all earlier years combined. In Hawaiʻi itself, 121 babies born in the state were named Kealiʻi from 1974 to 2021, with a peak of 11 in 1996. 23 were born there from 2012 to 2021.
How well recorded is Kealiʻi?
Kealiʻi has its own entry among Wiktionary’s documented Hawaiian given names.