Hemi is used as a form of James in Maori and other contexts, ultimately linked to the Hebrew name Jacob meaning 'supplanter.'
Hemi is a Māori name of New Zealand origin, representing the Māori phonetic adaptation of the English name James — which itself traces back through Latin *Jacobus* and Greek *Iakōbos* to the Hebrew *Yaakov*, meaning "supplanter" or, in later theological reinterpretation, "may God protect." When Christian missionaries translated the Bible into te reo Māori in the nineteenth century, Hebrew and Greek names were rendered according to Māori phonology, which lacks certain consonants; James became Hemi, a name that is now entirely naturalized within Māori culture and carries its own distinct identity independent of its etymological ancestry.
Hemi Walker, the Māori author best known for *Potiki* (1986) and *The Bone People* (1984 Booker Prize winner — though the latter was written by Keri Hulme, Walker's work also achieved considerable recognition), helped bring Māori names into international literary consciousness. The name is borne by numerous prominent Māori athletes, politicians, and artists, and within Aotearoa New Zealand it is a familiar, warm, and strongly masculine name associated with groundedness and cultural pride. Outside New Zealand, Hemi has acquired a separate association through American automotive culture: the Chrysler Hemi V8 engine, introduced in 1951 and revived in the muscle-car era of the 1960s, made "Hemi" a byword for raw power. This double resonance — indigenous heritage and mechanical muscle — gives the name an unusual duality depending on which side of the Pacific you encounter it.