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Hawai'i was unknown to the Europeans during the Middle Ages, and so had no European name.

It was inhabited by Polynesians who may have called the island chain something like "Owyhee" or "Hawai'i," which was what they were calling it in 1778 (long after the Middle Ages ended) when Captain James Cook discovered it and called it the Sandwich Islands.

The name Hawaii was restored to the Islands in 1840.

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11y ago

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