Meaning and background
The story behind Maui
Maui is the name of a Hawaiian island, while Māui, written with a macron over the a, is the name of a celebrated trickster figure in Hawaiian mythology. The Hawaiian language dictionary distinguishes the two spellings, even though they are closely associated. That makes Maui an evocative geographical choice for a dog, but not a licence to assign the island name every mythological attribute or a convenient made-up literal translation.
- Origin
- Hawaiian place name for the island Maui; distinct in the modern dictionary from Māui, the mythological demigod, which uses a long vowel. Source
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Everyday moments“Maui, come here!”
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About Maui
Recorded as a dog’s name
Maui appears in 44 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/maʊi/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/maʊi/ · primary stress on syllable 1M AW1 IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.