Kehlani

The point we are trying to make is that you can't change the spelling without changing the pronunciation and then meaning. This name would be spelled "Kelani", which isn't even grammatically correct and would mean "the heaven".

If a name stopped carrying its meaning after being modified slightly, few names would actually have meanings. For instance, Daniel means "God is my judge", and is derived from the Hebrew name דָּנִיֵּאל (Daniyyel). Daniyyel comes from the elements דִּין (din) meaning "to judge" and אֵל ('el) meaning "God". The name has been changed from Daniyyel, itself changed from 'din' and "el', but it still carries meaning. The name Kehlani might not be a proper phrase in Hawaiian, but neither is Daniel in Hebrew. I agree that it's not a proper Hawaiian name, but Giacinto is not a proper Greek name either. Kehlani is an English variant of Kalani, and Giacinto is an Italian variant of Hyacintus. Different names in different languages are derived from other names in other languages, and they are modified to make sense in terms of meaning or in terms of pronunciation and spelling said languages.
So Kehlani is not a Hawaiian name, and does not make sense in Hawaiian because it is not a Hawaiian name. It is an English variant that works fine in English.

This name is really ugly and fake-looking. I'd take real Hawaiian names over this pseudo-ethnic garbage any day.

Kalani is much better. The Kehlani spelling looks like you heard the name somewhere and didn't know how to spell it properly.

I definitely prefer Kalani.