What does uila mean in Hawaiian?
Uila is lightning, and since the nineteenth century it is also the ordinary word for electricity — the same extension English made from Greek.
Lightning is uncommon in Hawaiʻi compared with continental climates, so uila carries a sense of the rare and startling rather than the routine. In chant it marks a sudden, decisive event.
The word is also written ʻuila. Both spellings are found; the sense is the same.
Say it oo-EE-lah. Every vowel is pronounced, and the capitalized syllable takes the stress. The pronunciation guide covers the rules.
On this site uila is part of 3 names: 1 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 light.