| Home Page 1. A Brief History 2. 'Ukulele Assembly Sequence Links Photo Gallery | A Brief History - When the Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu on the
- afternoon of August 23, 1879, it was carrying 419
- Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira to
- work in the sugar cane fields. It had been a long and
- hard journey of over 4 months and some 15,000 miles.
- In celebration of their arrival, Joao Fernandes borrowed
- his friend's braguinha, jumped off the ship, and started
- playing folk songs from his native land on the wharf. The
- Hawaiians, who came down to the dock, were very
- impressed at the speed of this musicians' fingers as they
- danced across the fingerboard and they called the
- instrument "ukulele", which translates into English as
- "jumping flea". You see, that was the image conjured
- up by those flying fingers.
-
- At least that's one of the stories about the origin of the
- name "ukulele". Typical to much of Hawaiian history,
- there are several accounts of how the ukulele got its
- name. Queen Lili'uokalani thought it came from the
- Hawaiian words for "the gift that came here", or "uku"
- (gift or reward) and "lele" (to come). Another legend says
- the instrument was originally called "ukeke lele" or
- "dancing ukeke" (ukeke being the Hawaiian's three
- stringed musical bow). The name, being mispronounced
- over the years, became "ukulele". Another theory comes
- from a story about Edward Purvis, an English army
- officer and the Assistant Chamberlain to the court of
- King David Kalakaua, who was very adept at playing the
- braguinha. Since he was small and sprightly, the rather
- large Hawaiians nicknamed him "ukulele", the whole
- "jumping flea" thing all over again. Still another version
- of the origin of the world "ukulele" is attributed to
- Gabriel Davian and Judge W. L. Wilcox (a member of a
- well-known island family). According to the story, the two
- men were in attendance at a housewarming party at the
- Wilcox home in Kahili, where Davian was playing an
- 'ukulele he had made himself. When one of the guests
- asked what it was called, Davion jokingly replied that,
- judging from the way one "scratched at it," it was a
- "jumping flea". Wilcox, who was fluent in Hawaiian, was
- asked for the Hawaiian translation and is supposed to
- have answered, "'Ukulele!".
-
- Over the years, the "jumping flea" legend, the one
- where Joao Fernandes' fingers were jumping like fleas
- over the fingerboard, has become the most accepted,
- probably because that is the coolest story and Hawaiians
- just love a cool story.
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