Tarawa is an old Gilbertese form for ''Te Rawa'', meaning "The Passage" (of the Lagoon), because Tarawa is quite a unique atoll in Kiribati with a large ship passage or channel to the lagoon. But in the popular etymology, due to Kiribati mythology, Nareau, the God-spider, distinguished ''Karawa'', the sky, from ''Marawa'', the Sea, from ''Tarawa'', the land.