Can I tell you how we gave our children Hawaiian names?

Aloha,

I just want to say that I’m glad you’re here. You’re in the right place to learn. Whether you’re going to be giving names, or asked to help give names, you’re definitely going to be around a lot of Hawaiian names as you continue to learn the language. 

Traditionally, names were very prized by Hawaiians. The giving and receiving of names was taken seriously. Early Hawaiians didn’t have many possessions and the things that they did have - their clothing, tools and name - were highly treasured. (Again, I recommend reading a few pages in Nana i ke kumu Vol.1 to learn more about the significance of names in the early days of Hawaii.)

Can I tell you how we named our children? 

When my wife and I were married and decided to learn Hawaiian, we had to learn the language from the ground up. Neither of us had any family members who spoke Hawaiian. When it came to naming our children, we had no one to help us. Giving our children Hawaiian names was important to us, so we worked hard to learn the language. When we got to an intermediate/advanced level, I felt comfortable enough to piece a name or two together. 

I believe that if I didn’t have that level of language experience, I couldn’t give my children Hawaiian names. We could have hunted down somebody to help us, but the giving of a name is meaningful and we didn’t want to pass that on to someone else. We felt it was important to take responsibility for learning the language and giving our children their names. 

If you don’t have a good command of the language, and you want to give names, you can run into all kinds of issues. My own Hawaiian name, Maluhiahoomakaana, has a mysterious origin (no one in my family seems to remember who gave it to me). To be frank, it’s grammatically unsound, and I’m being nice about that. That’s why I just go by Malu or Maluhia because the rest of it is incomplete.

I encourage you to learn Hawaiian first before giving a name. I can’t count how many names I’ve heard that, like mine, are incomplete or just wrong. If you want help learning, go check out my Hawaiian Language Beginners Course, or schedule a consulting session and we can go over the name you want to give. I’m here to help.

Aloha,

Malu

ka-alala.mykajabi.com