The ukulele is a member of the guitar family of instruments; it generally employs four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings.
The ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian interpretation of the machete, a small guitar-like instrument related to the cavaquinho, timple, braguinha and the rajão, taken to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants, many from the Macaronesian Islands.
The Ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii where the name roughly translates as “jumping flea, perhaps because of the movement of the player’s fingers.