Where did the name hawaiian came from?

Uncertain. The islands may have been named by Hawaii Loa, their traditional discoverer. Or they may have been named after Hawaii or Hawaiki, the traditional home of the Polynesians.





The Hawaiian language word Hawaii derives from Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, with the reconstructed meaning "homeland"; cognate words are found in other Polynesian languages, including M膩ori (Hawaiki), Rarotongan (Avaiki), and Samoan (Savaii). (See also Hawaiki).





According to Pukui and Elbert, "Elsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaii or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the ancestral home, but in Hawaii the name has no meaning."





Though Captain James Cook called the islands that he discovered in 1778 the Sandwich islands, this honor to the Earl of Sandwich would be short-lived. King Kamehameha I united the islands under his rule by 1819 as the Kingdom of Hawaii.





A couple of theories exist on the origin of the name Hawaii. One theory has it that the name comes from a combination of the words "Hawa" and "ii" and means a small or new homeland; "Hawa" meaning a traditional homeland and "ii" meaning small and raging. The other theory is that the name comes from the traditional discoverer of the islands, Hawaii Loa.

Where did the name hawaiian came from?
semper_paratus_1776 provided a possible answer.





Another way to look at it is to dissect the word "Hawaii" into its three main components:


Ha = breath (of life)


wai = water (fresh)


i = supreme, best





When placed together, one could suppose that the ancient voyagers who found the islands called it "The best place to live due to the abundance of fresh water."
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