About

The Hawai‘i Names Project is a map-based public history project documenting the origins, meanings, and stories behind the names that shape Hawai‘i.

Some names come from Hawaiian language and tradition. Others reflect monarchy, missionaries, plantation life, music, arts, military presence, politics, business, sports or the people and events later commemorated in the landscape. Together, they show how place names record power, memory, identity, and change.

The project is designed to make that history easier to explore. Readers are encouraged to move through Hawai‘i by map, pin, profile, and story, connecting individual places to the forces that shaped them.

  New pins, Place Name Profiles, Places We Lost, and Stories are added over time as the project grows.

The aim is to create a durable, accessible record of Hawai‘i’s named places for those interested in how history lives on today.