What does mea mean in Hawaiian?
Mea is the most general word Hawaiian has: a thing, a matter, or a person. It works as a placeholder the way English uses 'one' — mea hula is a hula dancer, one who hulas.
Because it attaches to almost anything, mea turns up across the vocabulary rather than standing on its own. In names it usually carries the sense of a person marked by whatever follows it.
It also appears in Waimea, where the reading is different again: there mea describes reddish water, the colour of the streams running through red earth.
Say it MEH-ah. Every vowel is pronounced, and the capitalized syllable takes the stress. The pronunciation guide covers the rules.
On this site mea is part of 4 names: 0 begin with it, 3 end with it, and 1 carry it elsewhere. Most are girl names, and all of them sit in the group of Hawaiian names meaning earth.