(BIVN) – A representative of the Hawaiʻi Board of Geographic Names hopes the board can convene in Puna when it comes to its final decision regarding the name that will be officially designated to Fissure 8, the large, volcanic vent that emerged in Leilani Estates during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea.

Renee Pualani Louis, advisor to the state board, gave an update to the Hawaiʻi County Council Hawai’i County Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development in Hilo on Tuesday.

The deadline to submit new name proposals for Fissure 8 has passed. Now the submissions are being evaluated by the Permitted Interaction Group assembled to consider the names. Two community meetings have already been held in Pāhoa.

Louis said she is “hoping that we can wrap up our report next month and get as much information as we can from our community this month, so that we can present this information at the next board meeting.”

“What I’m hoping and praying will happen is that we can convene a full board meeting in Puna when the decision gets made,” she said.

Four names stand out for meeting the preferred submission criteria:

• Keahiluawalu O Pele
• Ahu ʻAilāʻau
• Keahiʻenaʻena
• Pohākaʻena

“The board is not here to name anything,” Louis said. “The Hawaiʻi Board is there to designate a name that the community is going to choose, hopefully.”

“There are other names that we can also include,” she said. “For example the term Fissure 8 should be considered a variant name, because if people were to go looking up Fissure 8 they’d find information about that particular feature. That’s the way that the U.S. board works. They allow for variant names.”

Before Louis gave her update to the council committee, two of the proposed names were supported in heartfelt public testimony.