Names of the Hawaiian Islands
The eight main islands, from largest to smallest, with how to say each name, what it means, and the color and flower that represent it.
Hawaiʻi
The Big Island
Probably from Hawaiki, the ancestral Polynesian homeland. Folk etymology links it to the navigator Hawaiʻiloa.
Maui
The Valley Isle
Named for the demigod Māui, who is said to have pulled the islands from the sea and snared the sun from the summit of Haleakalā.
Oʻahu
The Gathering Place
Meaning is uncertain. The popular translation 'gathering place' is not supported by the language. It may be the name of a child of Hawaiʻiloa.
Kauaʻi
The Garden Isle
Meaning is uncertain. Legends connect it to a favorite child of Hawaiʻiloa. A folk reading gives 'place around the neck' or 'favorite place'.
Molokaʻi
The Friendly Isle
Meaning is uncertain. Sometimes read as 'the turning sea' or connected to the same legendary family as the other islands.
Lānaʻi
The Pineapple Isle
Often translated 'day of conquest' (lā + naʻi), though the older meaning may be 'hump', describing its shape.
Niʻihau
The Forbidden Isle
Meaning is uncertain. The island is privately owned and Hawaiian is still the everyday language there.
Kahoʻolawe
The Target Isle
The carrying away (by currents), from kahoʻolawe. Uninhabited and sacred to the sea god Kanaloa.
Why the island names are hard to translate
Most of the island names are older than the words in the modern dictionary. Legend says the navigator Hawaiʻiloa named the islands after his children and his companions, which is why several names have no transparent meaning. Popular translations like “the gathering place” for Oʻahu are nicknames that later became attached to the name, not literal meanings.
The names Hawaiʻi and Maui do have clear roots. Hawaiʻi echoes Hawaiki, the ancestral homeland remembered across Polynesia, and Maui honors the demigod Māui, who is also a popular boy name. Kahoʻolawe is the one name that translates cleanly as “the carrying away”, for the currents that sweep past it.
Island names as baby names
Maui and Lānaʻi (usually spelled Lanai) are used as given names, and Kauaʻi appears occasionally. In Hawaiʻi, naming a child after an island is unusual but not disrespectful. More common are names that reference the sea and sky around the islands, see names meaning ocean and names meaning sky.