New Zealand place names
Both groups used names to commemorate notable people, events, places from their homeland, and their ships, or to describe the surrounding area.
Government amendments in 1894 and the establishment of the New Zealand Geographic Board in the mid-1940s led to the encouragement of original Māori names, although differing spellings and anglicised pronunciations persisted.
It is unknown when this was anglicised to New Zealand, but when British explorer James Cook left on his first voyage of discovery in 1768, the sealed orders given to him by the British Admiralty ordered him to proceed "...to the Westward between the Latitude beforementioned and the Latitude of 35° until’ you discover it, or fall in with the Eastern side of the Land discover’d by Tasman and now called New Zeland.
The North and South Island names arose through common usage rather than official declaration[12] and in 2009 it was revealed that they had never been formalised.
[17] Early Māori explorers such as Kupe, Ngahue, and Toi named many of New Zealand's coastal features.
Like later European explorers, they named things after themselves, their family members and events that occurred at the newly discovered locations.
Whakatāne, Rangitoto Island, Taupō, Urewera, Ngongotahā, and Tikitapu all commemorate incidents that occurred during the early arrivals, many of which are now forgotten.
[16] Whanganui means "wide river-mouth" and Waikanae indicates good waters for catching kanae, or flathead mullet.
[21] European arrivals exposed Māori to Christianity, leading to the settlements of Hiruharama, Petane and Hamaria – named after the biblical Jerusalem, Bethany and Samaria respectively.
The names of the Rānana, Ātene and Kareponia settlements represent Māori-language approximations of London, Athens and California.
[22] Moriori, descendants of Māori,[23] migrated to the Chatham Islands (off the eastern coasts of mainland New Zealand) c. 1500 CE and named them Rēkohu (Misty Sun).
[29] In 1998, as a result of the settling of the Ngāi Tahu Treaty claim, New Zealand's tallest mountain officially became Aoraki / Mount Cook.
Names acknowledged the colonising associations sponsors (Hutt Valley, Wakefield, Port Chalmers, Ashburton), ships (Bombay), government officials (Featherston, Rolleston, Invercargill), politicians (Foxton, Fox Glacier, Gisborne) and church leaders (Selwyn).
[36] Military heroes and famous battles were popular place names, with Auckland, Napier, Hastings, Havelock, Wellington, Picton, Marlborough, Nelson and Blenheim.
Royal names are more popular for streets than towns or geographical features, although both Auckland and Wellington have Mount Victoria.
Relatively few names are derived from British towns, with Dunedin (after Edinburgh—Dùn Éideann in Scottish Gaelic[37]), New Plymouth and the Canterbury Province among the most notable.
[38] Many inland locations (including Helensville, Dargaville, Morrinsville, Bulls, Masterton and Levin) were named after the early settlers.
Canterbury has an English flavour to its nomenclature with Christchurch and Oxford, but also contains Belfast and French names throughout the Akaroa area.
Scandinavian migrants left their mark in the Seventy Mile Bush with Dannevirke and Norsewood[39] and some of the suburbs and streets of Auckland and Wellington reflect Australian immigration (Footscray and Botany Downs).
[53] The flourishing of the film-industry in Wellington has led to the nickname "Wellywood", but a proposal to erect a "Hollywood"-style sign near the airport failed due to public resistance and possible copyright infringements.
New Zealanders will sometimes refer to the Taranaki Region as "The Naki",[58] Palmerston North as "Palmy", Gisborne as "Gizzie", Cardrona as "Cardie",[59] Paraparaumu as "Paraparam", Waimakariri as "Waimak" and Paekākāriki as "Pie-cock".
[60] Waikikamukau (/waɪkɪkɑːmuːkaʊ/, as if saying "Why kick a moo-cow") is a generic (and somewhat disparaging) name for a small rural and entirely fictional town or locality in New Zealand.
