Hinemihi, the ancestress and namesake of the Ngäti Hinemihi hapü (sub-tribe), lived around mid-1500. She was a woman of great mana (authority and prestige) partly inherited from her whakapapa descent lines, which traced back to Ngatoroirangi through her grandfather Tarawhai and to Tama te kapua through her grandmother Rangimaikuku. Both Tama te kapua and Ngatoroirangi were prominent ancestors who commanded the Te Arawa waka (Te Arawa canoe) on its journey from Hawaiiki (traditional homeland) to Aotearoa (New Zealand). Her mana and respect were also attributed to the fact that she had a kaitiaki (guardian spirit) Kataore.

 All people of her time knew of, and greatly feared Kataore, a guardian being that has been depicted by many carvers as a lizard. Kataore was renowned in the Te Arawa district as a taniwha (monster) that devoured people on their journeys through its territory. Hinemihi, however, was not afraid of Kataore and was able to sit and talk with the kaitiaki. Her tribe thus held her in high regard because of her fearlessness and because to disrespect her might bring the wrath of Kataore upon them. Her mana as ancestress of the Ngäti Hinemihi people led to later giving her name to female descendants. Throughout the whakapapa of Ngäti Tarawhai iwi (tribal grouping) are other women who bear the name Hinemihi, but it is after Hinemihi I of the mid-1500s that the Ngäti Hinemihi and three Hinemihi meeting houses take their name.