According to Hawaiian linguists Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini, the lake and the surrounding land division was named after its owner, either the Hawaiian high chief (aliʻi) or the Oʻahu trickster god Hālaliʻi. Hālaliʻi and Halulu were both aliʻi of the island of Niʻihau. A cinder cone of Haleakalā on the island of Maui also shares the same name.