Sloane's Hawaiian name
We went to Kailua Beach Park on Thursday afternoon with my Uncle Tudie. We were meeting up with my Auntie Myrtle, who is the family genealogist. We also met up with her husband Sione, and her son Stewart and his wife and daughter, Kaori and Yuzu. We had a bunch of food and sat and talked story for a while. Sloane loved chasing the birds. Every time a bird flew overhead she would smile and point and yell "Bah!" So my Auntie went home that night and went through our family tree looking for family names that mentioned birds. "Ha`ili Maile Kula Manu" was Sloane's great grandmother's Hawaiian name and roughly means "A gathering of birds". Auntie is still looking up the proper spelling and translation. For generations the Hawaiian language was a spoken language and not written, so there's no real definitive reference for this stuff.
My auntie kept saying ha'ili'ili when she was searching her memory for the correct spelling. When used in names the double 'ili is shortened to a single instance, so ha'ili would be used in a name. My Hawaiian pocket dictionary didn't have ha'ili'ili or ha'ili but it says that ho'ili'ili is a verb meaning to accumulate or collect. Maile is a tree in Hawaii with fragrant leaves. The maile leaves are often used in leis for men. My pocket dictionary defines Kula manu as "gathering of birds". So if it's spelled Ho'ili then it translates to "collecting maile gathering of birds".
The closest reference I found online was from a Hawaiian mele, (a poem or song).
"A Ha'ili, i ke kula'manu"
- At Ha'ili, a forest of flocking birds.
(Ha'ili is a region in Ola'a. A famous resort for bird-catchers.)
REF: http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ulh/ulh29.htm
Either way, it's pretty cool.
So "Sloan" was her great-grandmother's last name on Shannon's side, and "Ha`ilimailekulamanu" was her great-grandmother's Hawaiian name on my side.
