Read this article in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
Greetings friends to this column. I recently conversed with someone at a celebration and he asked me, as is usual in Hawaiʻi, “Where are you from? Where is your family from?”
I answered, “My grandparents came from Kaimukī but my ancestors of long ago came from Hāna, Maui and Anahola, Kauaʻi.” This new friend is a musician and was familiar with an Akana family from Kauaʻi. I said, “From Kalihiwai, perhaps.” He immediately agreed and began to explain his relationship.
He then asked about my Akana family from Anahola. I explained that this Akana was the first to open a rice mill on Kauaʻi in the moku (district) of Kawaihau. When his sugar plantation contract was completed, he asked my great-great grandmother, Kamila Kekaula Makanui (these are Hāna names), for land to plant rice.
My grandparent agreed to rent the kuleana called Konalele for rice cultivation. In addition, Akana married my great-grandmother Kamila Makanui and had four children – one of which was my grandfather, Eli Kāheakūlani.
One thing that interested us descendants was that the true name of the Chinese man was Li Ma-i. He was a Hakka* from Fujian. Li Ma-i was found on a deed in the Bureau of Conveyances in the Kalanimoku Building in Honolulu. Li is a widely used name amongst the Hakka and is the second most common name in China and Taiwan.
The story about Akana will show why that Akana family and this Akana family are not related.
After a while, Akana built a rice mill above the rice patches named Hanapaʻa, near the Anahola Bridge. Rice growers would come to the mill and called to this Chinese man, “Eh Mister, can you mill my rice?”
The Chinese word for Mister/Sir is “San.” However, a name with one syllable cannot stand alone in Chinese, so “Ah” is attached. Therefore, to Hawaiianize “Ah San” its pronunciation becomes “Ah Sana.” That was the spelling of the family’s name until the census of 1920: Ah Sana.
Around the 1940s, the spelling was changed by the government to one word. So, it is now spelled “Akana.” The name “Akana” is funny, as the meaning of the family name is “Mister.”
That is how the following names came to be spelled: Ahana, Ahuna, Ahina, Akaka, Akama, Akana, Akima, Akina, Akiona, Akuna, Alama, Alana, Apana, Apuna, etc.,
Perhaps they were spelled with an “Ah.” What is not known is the base of the Chinese name. As my example goes, Akana comes from the nickname “Mister” which became Ah Sana and later changed to Akana.
Such, too, are the old spellings of hapa (half) Chinese families in Hawaiʻi such as Ah Mook Sang, Ah Sam, Ah Sing, Ah You, and Ah Yat. There are some families that do not use “Ah” in their names that were Hawaiianized.
I met a grandfather from Kaʻū living in Puna. He said that his family name, “Mokiao,” was a Hawaiianized Chinese name! “Mokyu” was the Chinese name. Lili Mokiao was that elder and in his 90s at that time. We, the interviewers, were shocked.
Perhaps there are other Hawaiian-Chinese families with interesting stories about their family name.
Do you have a Hawaiian-Chinese name? If yes, I urge you to search and locate the story behind your family name. Arise all of you Ahana, Ahina, Ahuna, Akaka, Akama, Akana, Akima, Akina, Akiona, Akuna, Alama, Alana, Apana, Apuna, and more.
* Hakka means “visitors” as they migrated from the north to the rich soil of the southern China. Their enemies were the Punti, which means “original inhabitants.” The Hakka and Punti often fought in China, and in Hawaiʻi, because of this prejudice.
