List of New Zealand place name etymologies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Placenames in New Zealand derive largely from British and Māori origins. An overview of naming practices can be found at New Zealand place names.

A[]

  • Akaroa - Kāi Tahu Māori for "Long Harbour", equivalent to Whangaroa
  • Albany (Māori: Ōkahukura) - named after Albany in Australia, as they were both fruit-growing areas[1][2]
  • Albert Town - named after Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
  • Alexandra (Manuherikia or Areketanara) - named after Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of King Edward VII
  • Aoraki / Mount Cook - this Kāi Tahu Māori name is often glossed as "Cloud Piercer", but literally it consists of ao "cloud" and raki "sky". The English component is in honour of Captain James Cook
  • Aotearoa – the common Māori name for New Zealand since the early 20th century; previously a Māori name for the North Island. Usually glossed as Land of the Long White Cloud. From ao: cloud, tea: white, roa: long
  • Aramoana - Māori for "pathway to (or beside) the sea"
  • Auckland (Tāmaki Makaurau) - in honour of George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, a patron of William Hobson

B[]

C[]

D[]

  • Dannevirke (Taniwaka) - named after the Danevirke, a defensive formation constructed across the neck of the Jutland Peninsula during the Viking Age. Its name means "Danes' works" in the Danish language
  • Dargaville (Takiwira) - named after timber merchant and politician Joseph McMullen Dargaville (1837–1896)
  • Douglas (Oruru) - named after a member of the Crown's surveying party
  • Dunedin (Ōtepoti) - from the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, "Dùn Èideann"

E[]

F[]

G[]

H[]

I[]

K[]

  • Kaikohe - combination of food (kai), and the Kohekohe native trees on Kaikohe Hill, (Tokareireia)
  • Kerikeri - not definitively known. See Kerikeri#Origins and naming for several possibilities
  • King Country (Te Rohe Pōtae) - district where the Māori King Movement led by King Tawhiao flourished in the 1860s
  • Kirwee - named after Karwi, India by retired British Army colonel De Renzie Brett
  • Kohimarama - properly 'Kohimaramara' - to gather up (kohi) the scraps or chips (maramara)[citation needed]

L[]

M[]

  • Macetown - named after its founders, the brothers Charles, Harry, and John Mace
  • Mackenzie Basin (or Mackenzie Country) - named by and after James Mackenzie, a Scottish Gaelic shepherd and sheep thief who herded his stolen flocks to the largely unpopulated basin
  • Manukau - may mean "wading birds", although it has been suggested that the harbour was originally named Mānuka, after a native tree
  • Martinborough (Wharekaka) - after the town's founder, John Martin
  • Masterton (Whakaoriori) - after local pioneer Joseph Masters
  • Maungati - Māori for "cabbage-tree mountain"
  • Milford Sound / Piopiotahi - named after Milford Haven, Wales. The Māori name, Piopiotahi, means "first native thrush"
  • Millers Flat - named after an early European settler of the area, Walter Miller

N[]

O[]

  • Ophir - after gold was discovered in the area, it was named after where King Solomon obtained the gold to sheath the Temple in Jerusalem
  • Otago - Anglicised from the Māori name Ōtākou, a kāinga (village) east of present-day Otago Harbour, meaning "place of red ochre"
  • Otematata - Māori for "place of good flint"

P[]

  • Paerau - Māori for "hundred ridges"
  • Palmerston and Palmerston North - named after Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the suffix 'North' added to the latter which is the younger of the two settlements
  • Papatoetoe - papa means a flat, and toetoe is a native grass (similar to pampas grass)
  • Mount Earnslaw / Pikirakatahi - named after Earnslaw village in the parish of Eccles, Berwickshire, Scotland
  • Plimmerton - from John Plimmer, Wellington pioneer, director of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, which created the seaside resort to help boost its railway; central Wellington has Plimmer's Steps
  • Porirua - Possibly a variant of "Pari-rua" ("two tides"), a reference to the two arms of the Porirua Harbour
  • Pukerua Bay - puke: hill, rua: two - location is on a saddle between two hills

Q[]

  • Queenstown (Tāhuna) - most probably named after a small town called The Cove in Ireland which was renamed to Queenstown in honour of Queen Victoria in 1850.[3]

R[]

S[]

T[]

  • Tasman - district named from the bay name, in honour of Dutchman Abel Tasman, commander of first European ship to sight the country. Also name of Mount Tasman, Tasman Glacier and Tasman National Park
  • Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu "the summit where Tamatea, who travelled about the land, played the flute to his beloved." This hill in Hawke's Bay is credited by The Guinness Book of World Records with having the longest place name in the world
  • Tauranga - a sheltered anchorage for waka, (canoes)
  • Tauweru River - Māori for "hanging in clusters"; the town of Tauweru is named after the river
  • Te Awamutu - Māori for "the river's end"
  • Te Raekaihau Point - Te Rae-kai-hau - The literal meaning of the name is ‘the headland that eats the wind’ (see Best, 8, Pt.5, p. 174)
  • Te Waipounamu (the South Island) - the greenstone water or 'the water of greenstone' where 'wai' can also refer to rivers or streams or other bodies of water. It has been surmised that the name evolved from Te Wahi Pounamu, meaning the greenstone place
  • Te Whiti o Tū - Māori for "Tū's crossing"
  • Timaru - the Māori Language Commission renders this as Te Tihi-o-Maru, 'the peak of Maru'. Others have suggested that it derives from te maru, "place of shelter", or from tī, "cabbage tree", and maru, "shady"
  • Tiniroto - Māori for "many lakes"

W[]

Thomson's Barnyard[]

Many of the locations in the southern South Island of New Zealand, especially those in Central Otago and the Maniototo, were named by John Turnbull Thomson, who had surveyed the area in the late 1850s. Many of these placenames are of Northumbrian origin, as was Thomson himself.

There is a widespread, probably apocryphal, belief that the naming of many places was through a disagreement with the New Zealand surveying authorities. It has long been suggested that Thomson originally intended to give either classical or traditional Māori names to many places, but these names were refused. In response, Thomson gave prosaic Northumbrian names to them, often simply in the form of a Northumbrian dialectic name for an animal[6] The Maniototo region around the town of Ranfurly is rife with such names as Kyeburn, Gimmerburn, Hoggetburn, and Wedderburn as a result. Ranfurly itself was originally called "Eweburn". The area is still occasionally referred to as "Thomson's Barnyard" or the "Farmyard Patch".

External links and sources[]

  1. ^ Mahoney, Liz (1998). "Edge city". New Zealand Geographic (37). Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  2. ^ Baker, Amy (22 August 2017). "History books offer 'definite' guidance on pronunciation of Albany". Stuff. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Queenstown". New Zealand History. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  4. ^ http://www.spacew.com/gallery/image001144.html
  5. ^ http://www.astronomy.net.nz/auroraaustralis.htm
  6. ^ Reed, A. W. (1975). Place names of New Zealand. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed. ISBN 0-589-00933-8.
  • Land Information NZ (LINZ) An authoritative list of New Zealand placenames, used for NZ government maps, is available in various forms. The list does not cover their meanings.
  • NZ Geographic Board Nga Pou Taunaha Aotearoa - Free download of 55,000 New Zealand placenames. Note: Special care is required, for instance the geographic coordinates are NOT the centroid of the placename, they are the lower left corner of the original label scan from the 260 series maps (1:50 000 Topographic hard copy).
  • "Place names map". Māori Language Commission. Retrieved 11 July 2007.
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