The Marquesas Islands were the first of the island groups discovered by European explorers in the Pacific. Over the centuries, these Polynesian islands have been variously known by a number of names.

The islands are known in Marquesan variously as Te Henua Kenana or Te Henua ʻEnana in North Marquesan and Te Fenua ʻEnata in South Marquesan.

The first recorded European visitor to the islands was the Spanish navigator and explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira who came upon them by chance in 1595. He named them "Las Islas Marquesas de Mendoza" in honor of the wife of his patron García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquis of Cañete, the Viceroy of Perú.[1]

The islands are divided into two groups: a southern group of five islands and a northern group consisting of Ua Pou, Ua Huka and Nuku Hiva along with a set of smaller islands to the northwest.[2] The southern and northern Marquesas have distinct forms of Marquesan geography, Marquesan language, and Marquesan culture.

While there is no native Marquesan name to differentiate between the northern and southern groups, they have been differentiated as such, at least by American navigators, historically, by the names "Washington Islands" to refer to the northern Marquesas, and "Mendaña Islands" to refer to the southern Marquesas.

Following is a list of the islands, giving first their most widely accepted Marquesan names, followed by variants:

References

  1. ↑ Daughan, George C (2013). The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the U.S.S. Essex during the War of 1812. Hachette. ISBN 9780465069941.
  2. ↑ "Revisiting and revising Marquesan culture history: New archaeological investigations at Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva Island". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 113 (2): 143–196. June 2004 – via ResearchGate.
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