What does Māui mean in Hawaiian?
Māui is a Hawaiian boy name that means the demigod who snared the sun, the island of Maui. The name comes from Māui, Polynesian trickster hero. It is pronounced MOW-ee, with 2 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Māui belongs with other Hawaiian names about mythology, sun and strength.
Māui the demigod, and the island
Māui is the best-known figure in Polynesian story, and he belongs to the whole Pacific rather than to Hawaiʻi alone. He fished the islands up from the sea floor with a magic hook, snared the sun above Haleakalā so his mother's kapa would have time to dry, and stole fire from the mudhen. He is a trickster rather than a god: clever, reckless, and usually in trouble.
The island of Maui carries the name too, though tradition credits it to the son of the navigator Hawaiʻiloa rather than to the demigod directly. Most people arriving at this name today have met him in Disney's Moana (2016), where he is voiced by Dwayne Johnson.
Note the spelling: the demigod and the island are written Māui and Maui respectively in careful Hawaiian, with the kahakō marking the longer first vowel in the name of the demigod.
How to pronounce Māui
Say every vowel. The vowels in Māui are a as in “father”, u as “oo”, i as “ee”. A vowel with a line over it (kahakō) is held slightly longer. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Māui a boy or girl name?
Māui is listed here as a boy's name. Of the 344 U.S. babies given it, 33% were girls and 67% boys.
How often Māui is given in the U.S.
Social Security records show 344 U.S. babies named Māui from 1997 to 2023 (113 girls, 231 boys), counted as Maui because the records drop the ʻokina and kahakō. It appears in 21 of those 27 years. Its peak was 2017, with 51. The 2014 to 2023 total of 231 is more than in all earlier years combined. In the Hawaiʻi records it never reaches five births of one sex in a year, the level at which a name is listed.
How well recorded is Māui?
Māui has its own entry among Wiktionary’s documented Hawaiian given names.