What does ʻāina mean in Hawaiian?
ʻĀina is land, earth, and country, and it is built on ʻai, to eat, so the land is literally that which feeds. Aloha ʻāina, love of the land, is a central Hawaiian value, and a kamaʻāina is a child of the land. Kaʻāina is the land, ʻĀinalani heavenly land, Leiʻāina a lei of the land.
Say it AH-ee-nah. Every vowel is pronounced, and the capitalized syllable takes the stress. The ʻokina (ʻ) is a short catch in the voice, like the break in “uh-oh”. A vowel with a line over it (kahakō) is held a little longer. The pronunciation guide covers the rules.
On this site ʻāina is part of 2 names: 0 begin with it, 1 end with it, and 1 carry it elsewhere. They split evenly between girls and boys, and all of them sit in the group of Hawaiian names meaning earth.