[6] The Ngāti Paoa village of Pūkorokoro[7] was renamed after the warship HMS Miranda, which brought 300 soldiers of the 70th Surrey Regiment to the area in 1863, together with 600 more men on other ships.

Although the local iwi, Ngāti Pāoa, was loyal to the Crown, their settlement Pūkorokoro was shelled by the Miranda, killing many of the villagers.

[8] The soldiers were to build a fort supporting the British troops fighting in the Waikato region during the New Zealand Wars.

Several redoubts were eventually built, one of them named after the ship leading the small troop flotilla.

[9] In 2012, the local iwi, Ngāti Pāoa, made the Miranda Naturalists' Trust aware of their longstanding grievance that the historic name of the area—Pūkorokoro—was lost during the Invasion of the Waikato.

The Miranda Naturalists' Trust consulted its membership about their proposed name change in August 2013[8] and at the subsequent annual general meeting in May 2014, a unanimous decision was passed by the 50 members present in support of the name change to Pūkorokoro Miranda Naturalists' Trust.

[10] Ngāti Pāoa then proposed, through the Office of Treaty Settlements, that a dual name of Pūkorokoro / Miranda be assigned to the area.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 57.5% had no religion, and 32.5% were Christian.