What does Pele mean in Hawaiian?
Pele is a Hawaiian girl name that means lava, the volcano goddess. The name comes from pele (lava, eruption). It is pronounced PEH-leh, with 2 syllables. The stressed syllable is written in capitals.
Pele belongs with other Hawaiian names about fire, mythology and earth.
Pele
Pele is the goddess of volcanoes and fire, and she is not a figure from the past — she is understood as present, living in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at Kīlauea. Offerings are left at the crater rim, and eruptions are spoken of as her activity.
The stories describe her arrival from Kahiki, her search down the island chain for a home that would hold her fire, and her long conflicts with her sister Nāmakaokahaʻi, goddess of the sea. The geological sequence of the islands — oldest in the northwest, youngest in the southeast — runs in the same direction as her journey.
Pele is also the ordinary word for lava. Giving the name to a child is a serious matter and is not done lightly.
The words inside Pele
pele means lava, volcano.
How to pronounce Pele
Say every vowel. The vowels in Pele are e as in “bet”. See the full Hawaiian pronunciation guide.
Is Pele a boy or girl name?
Pele is listed here as a girl's name. Of the 103 U.S. babies given it, 50% were girls and 50% boys.
How often Pele is given in the U.S.
Social Security records show 103 U.S. babies named Pele from 1973 to 2023 (52 girls, 51 boys). It appears in 17 of those 51 years. Its peak was 1981, with 9. The 2014 to 2023 total of 23 is fewer 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 Pele?
Pele has its own entry among Wiktionary’s documented Hawaiian given names.