Elani

• Origin: Hawaiian
• Meaning: “oh sky.”
• Gender: Unisex
• Pron: eh-LAH-nee

The name is composed of Hawaiian vocative element ē (oh, alas), and lani (sky, heaven). It has been in use as a unisex name in Hawaii since at least the 18th-century, but possibly longer as Hawaiians did not have written records prior to this period.

It first entered the U.S. Top 1000 in 2024, and currently ranks at #844.

Its recent rise in the United States may be due to its similarity to several currently fashionable names, particularly Eliana, Alani and Leilani. Although Elani has an older history of use as a Hawaiian name, some of its recent use may also represent a modern variation of these names.

Sources

• https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/tree/results?q.birthLikePlace=hawaii&q.givenName=elani
• https://www.wehewehe.org/gsdl2.85/cgi-bin/hdict?e=q-11000-00—off-0hdict–00-1—-0-10-0—0—0direct-10-ED–4–textpukuielbert%2ctextmamaka—–0-1l–11-en-Zz-1—Zz-1-home-e+–00-4-1-00-0–4—-0-0-11-00-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&d=D1763#hero-bottom-banner