Laka as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Laka

What is the meaning of the name Laka ?

The baby name Laka is a Female name , 2 syllables long and is pronounced LAH-kah (IPA: /ˈlɑːkə/).

Laka is Hawaiian, Polynesian in Origin.

Laka is a Hawaiian given name used for any gender, taken from the Hawaiian word laka, “gentle, docile, to calm; tame.” In Hawaiian tradition it also names the goddess of hula, love, and the forest, patron of dancers and lei-makers and associated with maile and ohia lehua. The name therefore carries a sense of grace, creativity, and fertile growth.

Documented in Hawaii since the 1800s, Laka has persisted in family naming and saw renewed visibility during the Hawaiian cultural renaissance of the late 20th century; it now appears occasionally beyond Hawaii as an accessible Polynesian choice. The form is stable in Hawaiian and usually kept unchanged in English; true traditional variants are rare. Nicknames sometimes include Laki. Related theonymic compounds such as Ku-ka-ohia-Laka reflect the forest aspect. Note that in some South Slavic languages laka means “light/easy” (feminine), a coincidental homonym.