What does Kīlauea mean in Hawaiian?
Kīlauea is a Hawaiian unisex name that means spewing, much spreading, the active volcano. The name comes from kīlauea (spewing). It is pronounced kee-low-EH-ah, with 4 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Kīlauea belongs with other Hawaiian names about fire and earth.
Kīlauea the volcano
Kīlauea on Hawaiʻi Island is among the most active volcanoes on earth, and the name describes what it does: spewing, much spreading. Its summit crater, Halemaʻumaʻu, is understood as the home of Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, and offerings are still left at the rim.
The volcano sits inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Its 2018 lower Puna eruption destroyed some seven hundred homes and reshaped the coastline; it has erupted repeatedly since.
A second Kīlauea, unrelated to the volcano, is a town on the north shore of Kauaʻi, known for its lighthouse and seabird refuge.
The words inside Kīlauea
kīlauea means spewing, much spreading.
How to pronounce Kīlauea
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kīlauea are i as “ee”, a as in “father”, u as “oo”, e as in “bet”. A vowel with a line over it (kahakō) is held slightly longer. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kīlauea a boy or girl name?
Kīlauea is unisex. Hawaiian has no grammatical gender, and most traditional names were given to any child.
How often Kīlauea is given in the U.S.
No year from 1880 to 2023 saw five or more U.S. babies named Kīlauea, and it never reaches five in the Hawaiʻi records either, so it is rare as a first name.
How well recorded is Kīlauea?
Kīlauea is built from vocabulary recorded in Pukui–Elbert, the standard Hawaiian dictionary, but it has no entry among documented Hawaiian given names.