Polynesian Voyaging Society

NOTE: The names are organized by the four star lines, generally from north to south. Some of the names are traditional; others have been given by members of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and indicated by “(PVS)” at the end of the entry. The sources of the traditional names are indicated in the notes and bibliography.

Ke Kā o Makaliʻi

Ke Kā o Makaliʻi (The name of the first star line): “The bailer of Makaliʻi”; Makaliʻi was one of the navigators of Hawaiʻiloa, who, according to one story, was the first discoverer and settler of Hawaiʻi. The Big Island voyaging canoe Makaliʻi is named for this navigator. (PVS).

Hōkūlei (Capella): “Wreath, or lei of stars”; this sun-yellow star is the brightest in a circle, or lei, of five stars in the constellation of Auriga.

Nā Māhoe (Gemini Twins): “The Twins”; the first (Castor), a whitish green star, is called Nānā-mua (“Look forward”); the sun yellow star that follows is called Nānā-hope (“Look behind”; Pollux). Johnson-Mahelona and Makemson give the name as “Nāna,” equivalent to “Ana,” or star: “Nāna-mua” = “Front star”; “Nāna-hope” = “Behind star.”

Puana (Procyon): “Blossom”; this light yellow star has no recorded Hawaiian name; in Maori it is called Puanga-hori (“False Puanga”) to distinguish it from its pair Puanga or Puanga-rua (“Blossom-cluster”), or Rigel.

ʻAʻā (Sirius): “Burning brightly”; this blue-white star is the brightest in the sky. ʻAʻā is also a name for the seabird known as the booby. Another name for this star Hōkū-hoʻokele-waʻa” (“Canoe-guiding star”). It is the zenith star of Tahiti.

Makaliʻi (Pleiades): “Little eyes” or “Little stars”; this cluster of little stars marked the end of the year/ beginning of the celebration of Makahiki (“Arrival of Maka[liʻi] or the “Little Eyes”?) when it appeared in the east at sunset (in late fall). Beckwith suggests “Eyes of the chief” (367), Makaliʻi being the navigator-steersman for the voyaging chief Hawaii-loa. Makemson speculates that “Maka-liʻi” may be interpreted as “High-born stars” (i.e., “Maka-aliʻi”); she also notes that Makaliʻi is the name of the bow of the Maori canoe Tainui, with the Southern Cross as the anchor,“the Belt of Orion as stern, the Sword as cable, and the Hyades [the face of Taurus] as sail [Te Ra-o-Tainui]” (249).

Hōkūʻula (Aldebaran): “Red star”; also called Kapu-ahi (“Sacred fire”), an appropriate name for this giant red star in Taurus.

Ka Hei-hei o Nā Keiki (Orion): “The String Figure of the Children”; the name was given because the star group resembles a figure created in the traditional string game called Hei or Hei-hei. One string in particular, called “Hōkū” (Star), or “Spider,” resembles the rectangle formed by Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, and Saiph, with Orion’s Belt in the middle. This constellation travels along the celestial equator (Mintaka in Orion’s Belt has a declination of 0¾; the celestial equator is called Ke Alanui a ke Kuʻukuʻu, “The Roadway of the Spider” (PVS).

Kauluakoko (Betelgeuse): “Brilliant red star”; “koko” means “blood” or “rainbow-hued.”

Puanakau (Rigel): “Blossom Suspended Above”; a blue-white star in Orion.

Ke aliʻi o kona i ka lewa (Canopus): “The chief of the southern heavens”; this bright blue-white star is the second brightest in the sky.

Ka Iwikuamoʻo

Ka Iwikuamoʻo (The name of the second star line): “The Backbone” runs from Hōkūpaʻa at the north celestial pole to Hānai-a-ka-mālama pointing toward the south celestial pole. The stars in this line are seen as vertebrae along a backbone, a metaphor for a genealogical line, with each vertebra representing a generation (PVS).

Hōkūpaʻa (Polaris): “Fixed star”; this star appears “fixed” at the north celestial pole with other stars circling around it. Actually it is inscribing a small circle, 1.8 degrees wide, around the pole, and because of precession, the wobbling of the earth’s axis, Hōkūpaʻa is not actually “fixed” permanently. A circle of precession is completed in 26,000 years, and in 13,000 years the north pole will be pointing to the opposite side of the circle of precession, between Deneb and Vega and Hōkūpaʻa will be circumpolar (Kyselka and Lanterman 24-8).

Holopuni (Kochab): “To circle”; “To sail or travel around”. This star circles around Hōkū-paʻa in the Hawaiian sky. (PVS)

Nā Hiku (Big Dipper): “The Seven”; the stars of Nā Hiku are designated by numbers: Hikukāhi (Dubhe), Hiku[ʻa]lua (Merak), Hikukolu (Phad), Hiku[a]hā (Megrez), Hikulima (Alioth), Hikuono (Mizar), and Hikupau, ‘Finished’ (Alkaid) (Beckwith 208).

Hōkūleʻa (Arcturus): “Star of Gladness” or “Clear Star” (Johnson & Mahelona); this orange red star is the brightest in the northern hemisphere. It is Hawaiʻi’s zenith star”.

Hikianalia (Spica): “Hiki” could mean “star”; this blue-white medium bright star appears south of Hōkūleʻa.

Meʻe (Corvus): “Voice of Joy”; four stars south of Hikianalia. Meʻe is the Marquesan name of this constellation: “Mee is the Marquesan form of the widespread Polynesian star name Mere, Meremere, or Melemele, signifying ‘Voice of joy’” (Makemson 235). The Hawaiian form of Meʻe, “Mele,” means “song” or “chant ”or “to sing” or “to chant.”

Hānaiakamalama (Southern Cross): “Cared for by the moon” (Johnson & Mahelona); the line of shadow and light of the half moon points south, as does this constellation.

Kaulia (Gacrux): “Suspended” or “Hanging”; this cool red giant is at the top of the cross of Hānai-a-ka-malama. Kaulia has been described traditionally as a prominent star in the Southern Cross; “called the chief of the month of Ikiiki [May] because it appears in that month” (Johnson & Mahelona).

Ka Mole Honua (Acrux): “The bottom or foundation of the earth”; a name based on a possible name for Hānai-a-ka-malama (Southern Cross): Hōkū-kea [-o-ka-mole honua]—“Star-cross-of-the-barren-lands” (Makemson). This bright blue star at the bottom of the cross of Hānai-a-ka-malama points south. Mole means “tap root,” “bottom,” “ancestral root,” “foundation, ” “source”; honua means “land” or “earth.” Mole Honua is seen as the ancestral root or foundation of Ka Iwikuamoʻo, which metaphorically refers to a genealogical line.

Nā Kuhikuhi: “The Pointers”; translation of the haole name for a pair of stars which points to the Southern Cross. The first star (Beta Centauri) is called Kamailemua (“The first maile”); the second star (Alpha Centauri) is called Kamailehope (“The last maile”).

Manaiakalani

Manaiakalani (The name of the third star line): “Come-From-Heaven” (Beckwith and Makemson); or “The Chief’s Fishline” (Johnson and Mahelona). Manaiakalani is the name of the demi-god Māui’s fishhook, which he used to hook land at the bottom of the ocean, in some areas of Polynesia to drag up new islands, but in Hawaiʻi to pull the islands closer together. Manaiakalani is also given as the name of the fishhook of the Hawaiian fishing god Kūʻula-kai and his son ʻAiʻai (PVS).

Piraʻetea (Deneb): “White sea swallow”; this brilliant white super giant has no recorded Hawaiian name; Piraʻe-tea is the name in the Society Islands. The Piraʻe was the pet bird of Raʻi-tupua, Sky-builder, who in Tahitian tradition, put the sky in order after Tāne raises it on posts (Makemson 70).

Keoe (Vega): “Keoe is a Hawaiian name which Alexander believes was applied to Vega (Alpha Lyrae); but Kupahu describes it as a group of four stars forming a diamond. Hence it probably stood for the entire constellation of Lyra” (Makemson 220).

Humu (Altair): This star and two next to it (one on each side) were called Humu-mā and were named for a famous navigator and his two sons. The legend told by Kupahu (Johnson and Mahelona 167-8) suggests Humu-mā were guiding stars to Kauaʻi when a canoe sailed from Oʻahu. (Humu-mā would set just south of Kauaʻi on a sail from Oʻahu.) Humu’s two sons sailed with the first canoes; the older son, who knew the guiding stars, told the steersman which direction to sail in. The arrogant steersman got angry and threw Humu’s two sons overboard; they swam toward the stars known as Humu-mā and were rescued by their father, who sailed in the last canoe with the King; Humu and his two sons reached Kauaʻi, while the rest of the canoes were lost at sea.

Ka Makau Nui o Māui (Scorpio): “The Big Fishhook of Māui”; this constellation is also called Manaiakalani.

Lehua-kona (Antares): “Southern Lehua blossom”; this red star is on the shank of Ka Makau Nui o Māui. Lehua indicates the color red; or Lehua could be the Hawaiian form of Rehua, the Maori name for Lehua-kona: “‘Rehua is a star, a bird with two wings; one wing is broken. … Rehua was the guiding star of the Aotea canoe, the craft in which Turi arrived on the west coast of New Zealand, following Kupe’s sailing directions” (Makemson 249-50).

Ka Maka (Shaula): “The point of the fishhook” (PVS).

Ka Lupe a Kawelo

Ka Lupe o Kawelo (The name of the fourth star line; also The Great Square of Pegasus): “The Kite of Kawelo”; Kawelo was a famous chief of Kauaʻi. As a child, he acquired a kite and flew it. His kite got entangled with the kite of another boy named Kauahoa and Kauahoa’s kite came down, a sign of Kawelo’s superior mana (power). The story of Kawelo and his kite can be found in the Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore, Vol 5, pp. 2-5. (PVS).

ʻIwa Keliʻi (Cassiopeia): “ʻIwa, the Chief”; ʻiwa is the frigate, or man-of-war, bird (PVS).

Poloʻula (Caph / Beta Cassiopeiae): “Shining red.”

Bibliography

Beckwith, Martha. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant. Honolulu: UH Press, 1972. (First published in 1951 by the University of Chicago Press.)

Johnson, Rubellite Kawena, and John Kaipo Mahelona. Nā Inoa Hōkū: A Catalogue of Hawaiian and Pacific Star Names. Honolulu: Topgallant, 1975.

Kyselka, Will, and Ray Lanterman. North Star to Southern Cross. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1976.

Makemson, Maud W. The Morning Star Rises. New Haven: Yale University Press 1941.

Pukui, Mary Kawena, and Samuel H. Elbert. Hawaiian Dictionary. Honolulu: UH Press, 1971.