What does hāliʻa mean in Hawaiian?
Hāliʻa is a memory that arrives unbidden — the sudden recollection of someone absent, usually with longing attached. It is a staple of Hawaiian song, where it names exactly the feeling the song exists to express.
Say it hah-LEE-ah. 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 hāliʻa is part of 1 names: 0 begin with it, 0 end with it, and 1 carry it elsewhere. Most are girl names, and all of them sit in the group of Hawaiian names meaning love.