Hawaiian names for babies

Hawaiian names are exotic, attractive, beautiful, mysterious... and somewhat of an unknown quantity to most of us! If you're thinking of choosing a Hawaiian baby name, it's worth doing some research first to make sure you end up with a name that you and your child will be happy with.

Hawaiian names - fascinating facts!

Try these names... For boys: Kai Kaimana Kainalu Kainoa Kalani Keanu Kekoa Keoni Nainoa Akanu Kale Keoki Kimo For girls: Kahealani Kaila Kamalani Kawena Kiana Leilani Maile Malia Iekika Kala Kalena Kilikina Melika

• Hawaiian names can theoretically be used for both boys and girls, unless they are versions of boy and girl names taken from other languages or if a name's meaning just wouldn't suit one particular gender.

• the pronunciation of a name (for those familiar with the language) is very important; get it wrong and the name can mean something completely different!

• for Hawaiians, the giving of a name is an incredibly important task. The parents or grandparents may invent a name specifically for the child to be born, and the name could be inspired by a dream or an event that happened around the time of the child's birth.

Popular Hawaiian names - in Hawaii!

What's hot in baby names within the State of Hawaii?

Well, with Isabella, Emma, Madison, Hailey and Ava topping the baby name charts for girls, and Noah, Joshua, Ethan, Dylan and Elijah leading the way for the boys, you might be wondering where all those Hawaiian baby names are.

Worry not. There are Hawaiian baby names a little further down in the lists, but many Hawaiians give their children Hawaiian names as middle names - which means these names don't appear on the popular name lists.

Let's take a look at some Hawaiian baby names that do appear in the popular baby name lists for the State of Hawaii.

(New stats for the State of Hawaii coming out on May 19th 2008.)

Hawaiian boys' names	Hawaiian girls' names
Kai Kaimana Kainalu Kainoa Kalani Keanu Kekoa Keoni Nainoa	Kahealani Kaila Kamalani Kawena Kiana Leilani Maile Malia

Hawaiian versions of more familiar names

Akanu - Adam
Iokua - Joshua
Kale - Charles
Keoki - George
Kimo - James

Iekika - Jessica
Kala - Sarah
Kalena - Karen
Kilikina - Christina
Melika - Melissa

Hawaiian baby name meanings

I originally included some meanings for the names on this page - which resulted in quite a flurry of emails from visitors discussing the precise meanings. And I realized that Hawaiian baby name meanings can be pretty hard to pin down :)

What to do?

Well, you can find some meanings on these sites which I used as resources:

A list of Hawaiian names from Wikipedia which includes interesting background info.

And there are more ideas for Hawaiian baby names from Behind the Name.

My advice for checking or double-checking the meaning of a name would be to find Hawaiian forums or groups online where you can ask real Hawaiians, just so that you can be totally sure.

Stats on popular names from the State of Hawaii are available from Social Security Online.