What’s In A Name
What’s In A Name was Originally Posted on March 14, 2013 by lavarock
Hawaii has a problem and it only gets worse. There is a big push to identify my island differently. Here are some of the issues:
In the state, there are a number of towns with the same name. On the mainland, there might be a Springfield in almost every state, but I don’t think there are any states with two towns named the same. We have that here. There is a Waimea on almost every island. On my island, they call it Kamuela to help people know which one.
In the state there are hundreds of islands and atolls but we consider the “neighbor islands” the ones that people refer to when they say they are going to “Hawaii”. The state is named Hawaii, but it is actually named after our island, Hawaii island, the Big Island. The island of Oahu holds Honolulu and Waikiki and the North Shore surfing area. It is the island that most people visit and is our capitol, yet really nothing on that island refers to the island of Hawaii.
I live near the town we call “Kona” but it actually named “Kailua-Kona”. This is to keep people from mistaking it for Kailua on Oahu. Kona refers to the leeward side of an island and Kailua-Kona is on the leeward side of our island. the other Kailua is on the windward side of Oahu.
So when someone on the mainland tells me they are “going to Hawaii”, I have to ask which island. Many people don’t know there are different islands and give me a strange look.
People tell me they want to see the “volcano” but every island has at least one volcano and some have many. My island has five and it is expected that this one I live under will probably flow again in the next 100 years.
The Big Island Visitors Bureau wants to try to eliminate the confusion over the name of our island. They want us to say Hawaii Island or Hawaii, the Big Island.
We here just call it The Big Island and there are even t-shirts sporting FBI on them (in smaller letters, From Big Island).
It remains to be seen if the name name suggestion takes hold.