Her name has been traditionally spelled Kaiminaauao or Kaʻiminaʻauao with the two ʻokina, which are phonemic glottal stops, as it is used in many Polynesian languages.

Kameʻeiamoku, the grandfather of both her mother and father, was one of the royal twins alongside Kamanawa depicted on the Hawaiian coat of arms.

Another relative of the family was the High Chiefess Kapiʻolani who plucked the sacred ʻōhelo berries and openly defied the goddess Pele as a dramatic demonstration of her new faith in Christianity.

During this short period, a combination of measles and whooping cough and influenza epidemics killed 10,000 people, mostly Native Hawaiians.

[17] In a ceremony officiated by her sister Liliʻuokalani on June 24, 1910, her remains, and those of her family, were transferred for a final time to the underground Kalākaua Crypt after the main mausoleum building had been converted into a chapel.

[18][19] Kaʻiminaʻauao's three elder siblings were educated at the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed the Royal School), founded in 1839 by the American missionary couple Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke to provide a Western-style education to the Hawaiian royal children.

[23][24] Juliette Montague Cooke wrote: "A little girl, sister of three of our scholars, adopted by the Queen, and who was expecting to enter our family, died on 10th inst.