Jennie · English girl’s name

Jennie in Hawaiian is Kini

The form Hawaiian speakers have written since the 1800s, when J became I, the doubled consonant was written once, and the final e became i.

Translate another name

Say it

KEE·nee

The gold syllable takes the stress.

It also means

“multitude”

What is Jennie in Hawaiian?

Jennie is Kini in Hawaiian, said KEE-nee. The same form covers Jane and Jean, because Hawaiian writes all of these spellings the same way.

How Jennie became Kini

Hawaiian is written with thirteen letters, so in Jennie J became I, the doubled consonant was written once, and the final e became i. Hawaiian never writes a consonant twice, so the pair collapses to one.

Kini as a Hawaiian name

Kini is not only a borrowed spelling. It reads as Hawaiian in its own right, meaning “multitude”, and it is given as a boy's name in Hawaiʻi today. Its own page has the full meaning, the word it is built from, and names that go with it.

Kini is also a Hawaiian word: kini means “multitude, forty thousand”.

How to say Kini

Say it KEE-nee, leaning on KEE, sounding every vowel: i as “ee”. The pronunciation guide covers the whole system.

Where Jennie comes from

Jennie began as a pet form of Jane and of Janet, both feminine forms of John. From the late 1800s it was also used as a short form of Jennifer, the Cornish form of Guinevere, so the same spelling can come from two different names.

In Hawaiian all of these collapse into Kini, which sounds close to Jennie itself.

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 Jennie in Hawaiian?

Jennie is Kini in Hawaiian, pronounced KEE-nee. It is the form used in Hawaiian-language records since the 1800s, and it covers Jane and Jean as well.

How do you pronounce Kini?

KEE-nee, with the stress on KEE.

Why does Kini look so different from Jennie?

Each sound Hawaiian lacks was swapped for the nearest one it has. In Jennie, J became I, the doubled consonant was written once, and the final e became i.

Is Kini a real Hawaiian name?

Yes. Beyond being the Hawaiian spelling of Jennie, Kini reads as Hawaiian on its own and means "multitude". It is in use as a given name in Hawaiʻi today.

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