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Hawaiian Name Finder

Ellen · English girl’s name

Ellen in Hawaiian is ʻElena

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when the doubled consonant was written once, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end.

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eh·LEH·nah

The gold syllable takes the stress.

What is Ellen in Hawaiian?

Ellen is ʻElena in Hawaiian, said eh-LEH-nah.

How Ellen became ʻElena

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Ellen the doubled consonant was written once, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end. Hawaiian never writes a consonant twice, so the pair collapses to one. Hawaiian does not run two consonants together, and every syllable ends on a vowel. A Hawaiian word cannot finish on a consonant, which is where the last vowel comes from. The ʻokina at the front is a consonant in Hawaiian, the catch in the voice before the first vowel.

ʻElena has a page of its own as a Hawaiian given name, with its popularity and the names it is usually paired with.

How to say ʻElena

Say it eh-LEH-nah, leaning on LEH, sounding every vowel: e as in “bet”, a as in “father”. The ʻokina (ʻ) is a catch in the voice, the break in the middle of “uh-oh”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

Where Ellen comes from

Ellen began as an English form of Helen, from the Greek Helene, whose meaning is unknown. It was used as a separate name from the Middle Ages and was very common in the 1800s.

Hawaiian writes it ʻElena, with an ʻokina at the front and a final a. Helen, the name Ellen grew out of, took a different Hawaiian form, Helena, which keeps its H.

Sources the Pukui and Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary, Place Names of Hawaii, Nānā i ke Kumu, wehewehe.org, Wiktionary's Hawaiian given names and U.S. Social Security baby-name records. How this site is compiled · Send a correction

Questions people ask

What is Ellen in Hawaiian?

Ellen is ʻElena in Hawaiian, pronounced eh-LEH-nah. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s.

How do you pronounce ʻElena?

eh-LEH-nah, with the stress on LEH.

Why does ʻElena look so different from Ellen?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Ellen, the doubled consonant was written once, a vowel was slipped between the consonants that ran together, and a vowel was added at the end.

Is ʻElena a real Hawaiian name?

Yes, as a borrowed name. Hawaiian families have used ʻElena since the 1800s, but it is Ellen respelled, not a name built from Hawaiian words.

All 164 English names in Hawaiian · Hawaiian girl's names