Your Name in Hawaiian

How English names became Hawaiian

When missionaries printed the first Hawaiian alphabet in 1826 they fixed it at thirteen letters, the five vowels and h, k, l, m, n, p, w, plus the ʻokina. Every Bible name and every settler’s name had to be written with those letters, and Hawaiians did it by ear. The sounds Hawaiian lacks were swapped for the nearest ones it has. B, F, and V became P or W. D, G, S, T, and Z became K. R became L. J became I. Consonants that ran together were separated with a vowel, and every name was given a vowel ending, because a Hawaiian word cannot end on a consonant.

The results are the names in the tables below. Mary became Malia, John became Keoni or Ioane, David became Kāwika, Robert became Lopaka, and Elizabeth became ʻElikapeka. These are not translations of meaning. Malia does not mean the same thing as Mary. They are the same name pronounced in a different sound system, and after two centuries of use in Hawaiian churches, schools, and families they are Hawaiian names in their own right. Many appear on the girl names and boy names lists with their own pages.

What the translator does with a name it does not know

For a name with no recorded Hawaiian form, the tool applies the same sound rules the missionaries’ students used. It is the process behind every name in the table, so the result is plausible Hawaiian spelling, but it is a guess about pronunciation rather than a name anyone has carried. If your name has a meaning you care about, a better path is to choose a Hawaiian name with that meaning. Search the name finder by meaning, for instance grace, light, or strength.