Saturday, October 14, 2006

Possible Original Name for Kahana

One of the things that I have found is a possible spelling of the original version of the Kahana surname. One of my cousins found it somewhere on one of their trips to Hawai'i.

KAHAMOOKALANIKAHANAKAOHUN

The name is mispelled. All Hawaiian words and syllables end in a vowel. So, this one has either a missing last letter or the last letter has be transcribed incorrectly. Considering the way the name has been given to me with the letter 'n' on the end, chances are that the name ended in a closed letter. So, the letters 'a' and 'o' are possibilities, also the letter 'u' is a possibility because sometimes the letter 'n' can look like the letter 'u'. So here are the possibilities that I can up with:

KAHAMOOKALANIKAHANAKAOHUA

KAHAMOOKALANIKAHANAKAOHUO

KAHAMOOKALANIKAHANAKAOHUU

I remeber seeing the name when I was a child, but unfortunately I do not remember what it was. I do remember that it begun with the letter 'K' and that it was HUGE! It took up almost the entire line and written next to it was "later shortened to Kahana". This little note was written in my Mom's handwritting, and after doing some research family story goes that my Mother knew the name in it's full version. So, it is possible.

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