OFFICIAL name of the island?

[Midnight Rambler]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bullwinkle

Michener (and I believe Beckwith) have it as Haviki.... Hawaii being the modernised version

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Havaiki is the name that Polynesians elsewhere gave to their original homeland across the ocean. It's the Tahitian cognate of Hawai'i, probably originally derived from Savai'i in Samoa.

What makes that especially interesting is that here in the place they called Hawai'i, the name for that homeland is Kahiki, i.e. Tahiti.