A common explanation of the name of Hawai?i is that it was named for Hawai?iloa, a figure from Hawaiian oral tradition. He is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawai?i is very similar to Proto-Polynesian Sawaiki, with the reconstructed meaning homeland.

The name "Hawaii" is believed to be derived from the name of Hawaiʻiloa, a legendary Polynesian navigator who, according to oral tradition, discovered the islands. Another popular theory suggests the name comes from the Proto-Polynesian word hawaiki, which means "place of the gods" or "homeland." In the Hawaiian language, the word is properly spelled with an ʻokina (Hawaiiʻi). Historically, when Captain James Cook first "discovered" the islands for the Western world in 1778, he named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich. However, King Kamehameha I, who unified the islands under one rule, preferred the native name, and "Hawaii" eventually became the official title. By the mid-19th century, the "Sandwich Islands" name fell out of favor, and the indigenous name was permanently adopted when the Kingdom of Hawaii was formally recognized by international powers.