KAMEHAMEHA MEANS “THE very lonely one.” Following the tradition that names were chants or statements, his full name was:
Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ‘Iolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kunuiakea.
Referring to Kamehameha as Kam is considered disrespectful, since Kam doesn’t sound like Kamehameha.
He was born around 1758 when Halley’s Comet streaked across the storm-ridden Hawaiian Islands. Kahunas prophesied the unusual natural events signaled the birth of an exceptional individual.
Aliʻi (Hawaiian chiefs) worried the prophesied individual would threaten their rule and ordered newborns killed. But Kamehameha was spirited to Hawaiʻi’s Big Island and trained as a warrior.
It was prophesied that whoever overturned the five-thousand-pound Naha stone would unite
