OFFICIAL name of the island?

[OpenD]

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Originally posted by pahoated

There is more evidence that Hawai'i island was always Hawaii. The word hawaii means homeland. The legend is a polynesian man named Hawaii Loa found the Hawaiian islands.

Owhyhee is what Cook wrote down in his log after asking the natives what the name of the island was.

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The other day I saw an article about a wild horse roundup at Owyhee Wilderness in Idaho. Tracing the name, it turns out that the Owyhee River was named that way to honor three "kanakas," as Hawaiian natives were called back in 1820, who were hired to explore the river to its source, but who never returned.

I also found a reference to a a ship called the Brig Owyhee losing its anchor off the coast of Oregon, and that anchor is now exhibited in the Clackamas County Museum.

The switch to the current "Hawai'i" spelling did not come until later in the 1800s, when the phonetic-based written language was developed.