Hawaiian Name Finder

beach · Kauaʻi

Kalapakī

double-yolked egg

kah-lah-pah-KEE

The beach at Nāwiliwili, below Līhuʻe.

A double yolk

Kalapakī is recorded as meaning a double-yolked egg. The reason is not preserved, which is true of a great many Hawaiian place names — the reference was obvious to the people who used it and was never written down.

Names like this are a reminder that a place name is a sentence fragment from a conversation that ended.

Nāwiliwili

The beach fronts Nāwiliwili Bay, Kauaʻi's commercial harbour, named for the wiliwili trees that grew there. It is one of the more sheltered swimming beaches on the island because the harbour breakwater takes the swell.