What Do You Call Someone From Fiji? (Explained!)

Someone from Fiji is called a Fijian. In Fijian, though, the dominant ethnic group is referred to as iTaukei, meaning owners of the land. There are multiple ethnic groups in Fiji, though, all of whom can broadly be called Fijians in the sense of their nationality—but they may prefer their unique ethnic moniker.

There are always two essential ways of thinking about someone’s national or cultural identity.

The simpler question is just of nationality and the modern notion of the nation-state—on the other hand, the question of an individual’s ethnicity is often more complex and yet more important to a true understanding of their identity.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What is someone from Fiji called?

The simple answer is that someone from Fiji is called a Fijian.

If your nationality is Fijian, or if you have some cultural, residential, or historical connection to Fiji, then in one sense or another you are Fijian.

Humans have inhabited Fiji for millennia, long before the more modern notions of identity and nationality ever arose.

Today, though, Fiji is a nation-state, and the official demonym for its citizens is Fijian.

The question, of course, is in reality a lot more complicated.

Firstly, Fijian itself is a moniker for a specific ethnic group, otherwise called the Itaukei people.

They represent around 56% of the Fijian population.

I’ll get into where these people are descended from shortly, but in essence, these are the descendants of people who have been on Fiji since long before anyone else.

With that said, one minority ethnic group in Fiji are the Indians or Indo-Fijians, representing around 37% of the Fijian population.

They mostly settled in Fiji during the colonial era as Indians were often employed on European ships coming from India and the East Indies.

There are also the Rotumans, another Polynesian ethnic group who make up a small but not inconsiderable portion of the Fijian population.

At around 10,000 people they constitute about 1.5% of the Fijian population.

The point is that Fijian is both a nationality but it is also a specific ethnicity and not the only one to be found in Fiji.

Fijians themselves may prefer the name Itaukei, though Fijian is generally meant to refer to these people exclusively; Indo-Fijians may prefer to be called Indian, and of course the Rotumans certainly prefer this name.

At the same time, from a modern perspective, all of these people are Fijian in the sense that that is where their nationality lies.

Where does the name “Fiji” come from?

Fiji is actually made up of several different islands, and though the origin of the name Fiji is not precisely clear, it’s thought to come from the name of Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu.

Fiji is thought to be a variant of Viti, as Captain Cook first encountered Fijians in the neighboring Tonga, where the Tongans called the island Fisi.

Until the late 19^th Century, the name of the country was written by Europeans as Feejee, which was the Anglicized pronunciation of the way that the Tongans pronounced the island’s name.

It’s all a bit muddled, then, and you can see why Fijians tend to also be called Itaukei—this is derived from their own name for themselves.

Are Fijian people Polynesian?

This, again, is not really a simple question.

To try to answer it simply we can say that Fijians are not Polynesian but are instead Melanesian, which means relating to Melanesia.

Melanesia is a region of Oceania in the south-west Pacific Ocean, extending from New Guinea to Fiji. Polynesian, on the other hand, originally referred to all islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Ethnically speaking, though, there is certainly a good deal of Polynesian admixture in the average genetic makeup of the modern Fijian.

The vast majority of it is Melanesian, of course, and Fijians are descended from the Lapita people who settled in Melanesia around 1600 to 500 BCE.

Since that time, though, there has of course been much communication and intermixing with Polynesian people.

In the strictest sense, then, Fijians are Melanesian rather than Polynesian in terms of their geography and the vast majority of their ethnic makeup.

Many would say, though, that culturally, they are much closer to Polynesians than Melanesians—but this is really a different debate!

Where do Fijians live?

It’s important to mention that while the majority of Fijians live on Fiji, there is also a wide Fijian diaspora.

Of the roughly 615,000 Fijians living in the world today, around 475,000 live in Fiji.

There is, though, a proportionally very large population living in Australia, around 96,000.

There is also around 40,000 living in the United States, and a further 25,000 in Canada.

All this is to say that many Fijians in the world may feel something other than Fijian to be an important part of their national identity if only because they themselves have lived there for a long time.

They may even be generational immigrants with Fijian ancestry but who were brought up in another country, none of which precludes them from being a Fijian.

So, many people can be called Fijian in the sense that they are a citizen of the modern nation-state of Fiji.

Many people, further, can be called Fijian on the basis of their ethnic identity, whether or not they actually live in Fiji.

A considerable chunk of the Fijian population belongs to other ethnic groups, and while they are Fijians in one sense, they may not prefer this name.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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