Makena

Makena is a Hawaiian place name. It’s a region located on the southwestern side of the island of Maui and is derived from the Hawaiian word “mak’ke” meaning “many gathered”. One story of origin suggests that Makena received its name when many people traveled and gathered there to collect coral for the building of the Po’okela Church in Makawao in the 19th century. Makena is also historically relevant given that it’s the landing point of the first European explorer, the French Captain Jean-François de La Pérouse. La Perouse Bay marks this location. Makena is also steeped in ancient Hawaiian mythology involving the fire/volcano goddess Pele. Jealous of the beautiful lizard maiden sunning herself on the beautiful south shore beaches of Maui, Pele spit fire from the Haleakalā volcano and split the maiden in two – the head becoming the area known as Pu’u Ola’i, and the tail represented by the Molokini islet. Makena is a beautiful and refreshingly unpopulated area of Maui, where the sun always shines in the shadow of the volcano and the beaches are magnificently pristine. Aside from this name’s connection to Hawaii, Makena is also said to mean “the happy one” in the Eastern African language of Kikuyu (spoken mainly in Kenya). It is for this reason that we are also calling Makena an African-American name. Lastly, Makena could simply be a respelling of MacKenna or McKenna which is a Gaelic surname meaning “son of Cináed” with Cináed being the Gaelic form of Kenneth, ultimately meaning “born of fire”.