What does Kīnaʻu mean in Hawaiian?
Kīnaʻu is a Hawaiian girl name that means a high chiefess and kuhina nui (regent) of Hawaiʻi. The name comes from chiefly name. It is pronounced kee-NAH-oo, with 2 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Kīnaʻu belongs with other Hawaiian names about royalty.
Kīnaʻu, regent of the kingdom
Elizabeth Kīnaʻu was a daughter of Kamehameha I and served as kuhina nui, the kingdom's co-ruler with the king, from 1832 until her death in 1839, during the reign of Kamehameha III.
She was the mother of two later kings, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V, and of Victoria Kamāmalu, so the name is tied closely to the royal line. It is a girl's name here and a rare one.
How to pronounce Kīnaʻu
Say every vowel. The vowels in Kīnaʻu are i as “ee”, a as in “father”, u as “oo”. The ʻokina (ʻ) in Kīnaʻu is a short pause, like the break in “uh-oh”. A vowel with a line over it (kahakō) is held slightly longer. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Kīnaʻu a boy or girl name?
Kīnaʻu is used mainly as a girl's name, though Hawaiian itself has no grammatical gender.
How often Kīnaʻu is given in the U.S.
No year from 1880 to 2023 saw five or more U.S. babies named Kīnaʻu, and it never reaches five in the Hawaiʻi records either, so it is rare as a first name.
How well recorded is Kīnaʻu?
Kīnaʻu is built from vocabulary recorded in Pukui–Elbert, the standard Hawaiian dictionary, but it has no entry among documented Hawaiian given names.