The tying
Kaʻōhao describes a binding or tying together, as the two ends of a lei or a rope are bound. It is the name of the ahupuaʻa — the traditional land division running from ridge to sea — that covers the area.
One account connects it to a game played there in which two people were tied together. The name is old, and it is the name the land carried before the 1920s subdivision renamed the beachfront Lanikai.
Coming back
The older name has been returning to ordinary use. The neighbourhood's elementary school took back the name Kaʻōhao in 2018, and residents increasingly use it for the area as a whole, keeping Lanikai for the subdivision itself.