Kinipela as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Kinipela

What is the meaning of the name Kinipela ?

The baby name Kinipela is a Unisex name , 4 syllables long and is pronounced kee-nee-PEH-lah (approx.).

Kinipela is in Origin.

Kinipela is the Hawaiian-language adaptation of Jennifer, the Cornish form of Welsh Gwenhwyfar (the source of Guinevere). Hawaiian phonology replaces j with k, f with p, and final r with l, producing Ki/Ke-ni-pe-la. The Celtic roots gwen “white, fair, blessed” + (h)wyfar “smooth, soft; phantom” yield meanings commonly glossed as “fair one” or “white phantom.”

Recorded sporadically in 19th- and 20th-century Hawaiian-language sources and occasionally revived alongside the late‑20th‑century Jennifer boom, Kinipela remains uncommon on modern birth registers. Variant spellings include Kenipela; nicknames are Kini and Pela. Closely related forms and cognates include Jennifer (English), Guinevere (medieval/English), Gwenhwyfar (Welsh), and Ginevra (Italian). Some modern sources claim Kinipela means “wave,” but that sense belongs to native Hawaiian nalu; Kinipela’s formation is transliterational rather than lexical.

⚙ Kinipela is an extremely rare name. Across our dataset of national birth registries and international name records, Kinipela appears only 1 time in total — found in 1 country. If you're considering it, you'd be giving your child a name almost nobody else has.