New Zealand place names
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Zealand place-names derive mostly from Māori and from British sources. Māori named most of New Zealand's natural features, often after heroes or events involving ancestors. Many Māori place-names acted as memory-aids, reminding people of particular stories or ancestors. When Europeans began arriving in New Zealand from the 17th century, and in greater numbers from the 18th century, they renamed many geographical features, often after places in Britain or important settlers or British people. Both peoples used naming as a way of asserting real or symbolic ownership over a place, a practice described as "cultural colonisation".[1]
Contents |
[edit] Māori names
No known pre-contact Māori name for New Zealand as a whole survives, although Māori referred to the North Island as Te Ika a Māui (the fish of Māui) and the South Island as Te Wai Pounamu (the waters of jade) or Te Waka a Māui (the canoe of Māui). Until the early 20th century, Māori also referred to the North Island as Aotearoa, (often glossed as 'long white cloud'); in modern Māori usage this has become the name for the whole country.
Many Māori place names derive from mythical or real events and people associated with the place; for example the Māori name for Wellington Harbour, Te Whanganui a Tara, derives from Tara, a grandson of the Polynesian explorer Kupe and ancestor of several local iwi.[2]
Numerous places take their names from Māori explorers who, like later European explorers, named things after themselves, their family-members and events which occurred at the newly-discovered location. For example, Kahumatamomoe named Manukau Harbour after a manuka-stake which he used to claim ownership of the area, and Kaipara Harbour after the kaipara (a kind of fern) he ate there.[3]
Other names provide descriptions, or relate to activities carried out at a place. For example Whanganui means "wide river- mouth" and Waikanae indicates good waters for catching kanae, or flathead mullet.[4] i don't know what u r talking about
A class of reduplicative — names: Naenae, Matamata, Kerikeri, Katikati, Harihari, Meremere — deserves special mention.
[edit] European names
Most European settlers in New Zealand came from Britain and Ireland, and like many settlers they attempted to make the unfamiliar new country "homely" by giving familiar British or Irish names to towns and geographical features. The vast majority of non-Māori New Zealand place names thus have British or (less often) Irish resonances. Settlers used the names of places "back home", of respected people in Britain and New Zealand, and of episodes from British history. Later they became more likely to apply existing Māori names to new settlements.
The first European visitor to New Zealand, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, named the place he visited Staten Landt, believing it formed part of the land Jacob Le Maire had seen in 1616 off the coast of Chile. Staten Landt appeared on Tasman's first maps of New Zealand. Hendrik Brouwer proved the supposedly South American land an island in 1643, and Dutch cartographers subsequently renamed Taman's discovery to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. British explorer James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand, using the anglicised form of the Dutch name.
The 1840 Letters Patent establishing New Zealand as a British colony claimed the "principal islands" of New Zealand identified by their commonly-known names at that time: the Northern Island (North Island), the Middle Island (South Island) and Stewart's Island. The letters patent attempted to rename the islands New Ulster, New Munster and New Leinster after three of the traditional provinces of Ireland,[5] and these names also came into use for the initial provinces of New Zealand,[6] but they did not endure. Although the "South Island" initially referred to Stewart Island, the former Middle Island eventually took on that name. With the possible exception of Stewart Island, these names probably arose through common usage rather than through official declaration.
Many places in New Zealand take their names from the aristocratic patrons of exploration and settlement (for example Mount Egmont and Auckland), from explorers (especially Captain James Cook, who gave his name to Cook Strait and Mount Cook), or from members of the British Royal Family (for example the many places with names including the elements "Victoria", "Queen", "Prince" or "Albert"). Royal names became more popular for streets than for towns or for geographical features, although New Zealand has at least two Mount Victorias. As colonisation progressed, many places took the names of colonial leaders and early settlers. In most cases, for example Featherston, Hamilton and Seddon, these names commemorated "respectable" people such as politicians, but some recall the less respectable. As a good example of this, the Mackenzie Basin, takes its name from a sheep-stealer.
A number of early New Zealand settlements have names drawn from British military history. These include Nelson, Alma and Wellington; a sub-class of this group reflects British military activity/presence in India: Khandallah, Berhampore, Havelock, Napier, Clive.
Other names echo those of British or Irish places, for example Canterbury, Cambridge, and Belfast. An unusual variation of this practice, Dunedin, uses the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh. A few places took their names from non-British places, for example Kirwee, named after Karwi in India; and the Coromandel, (indirectly) from India's Coromandel Coast. Later towns often acquired the Māori name of their region or of a nearby feature, for example Whangarei and Taupo. Few biblical place-names exist in New Zealand, with Jerusalem and Bethlehem as exceptions.
European explorers sometimes named places after incidents which had occurred there. For example, Cape Kidnappers commemorates a Māori attempt to kidnap one of Cook's crew members. Other places take their names from geographical features, for example Whitecliffs and Island Bay. A few derive their names from descriptions in languages other than English or Māori, for example: Miramar, which means "sea view" in Spanish; and Inchbonnie, which means "beautiful" (bonnie in Lallands) "island" (innis in Scottish Gaelic).
[edit] Regional patterns
Many Scottish names occur in the areas of Otago and Southland, (note the Lammerlaws, Invercargill, Wedderburn, Glenfalloch) but Scottish settlers also left their mark elsewhere (note Riccarton in Christchurch. Canterbury by contrast has to some degree an English flavour to its nomenclature (Christchurch, Oxford) but also features Belfast and the French names of the Akaroa area. Scandinavian migrants left their mark in the Seventy Mile Bush (Dannevirke and Norsewood). Some of the suburbs and streets of Auckland and Wellington may reflect the influence of Australia rather than Europe (Footscray, Botany Downs).
[edit] Unofficial names
New Zealand and various parts of it have acquired a range of unofficial names over the years. Unofficial late nineteenth-century names for New Zealand included "Maoriland", and "God's Own Country". The former occurred widely in the labour movement, and an early labour newspaper had the name the Maoriland Worker. Premier Richard John Seddon (in power (1893 - 1906) popularised "God's Own Country". Both names fell out of popularity in the twentieth century, although "God's Own Country" still sometimes appears, usually semi-ironically. Lofty latinate names for the country have included "Zealandia"[7] and "Nova Zealandia" (as opposed to the former usages: "Nova Zelandia" and "Nova Zeelandia").
Many cities and towns have semi-official nicknames based on a prominent feature or one which promoters wish to emphasise: for example Christchurch, the 'Garden City' and Wellington, the 'Harbour Capital'. Auckland's nickname 'the Queen City' has less obvious origins, especially since it predates Auckland's status as the gay capital of the country.
Following the release of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, New Zealand sometimes became known as "Middle Earth" after the fictional setting of the films. Wellington, the centre of the films' production, also sometimes became Middle Earth, and for about a week around the release of the first movie the local newspaper The Evening Post renamed itself The Middle Earth Post. The town of Matamata, the film set of many of the Hobbiton scenes, also unofficially renamed itself Hobbiton. The flourishing of the film-industry in Wellington also led to the nickname Wellywood.
A number of towns have acquired ironic nicknames. One such as 'Roto-vegas', initially coined to mock Rotorua by comparing it to the much more exciting Las Vegas, but since semi-ironically adopted by the youth of the town. British writer Lynn Barber picked up on the nickname while visiting the town and, apparently not realising the irony, wrote that "that's pushing it a bit - Roto Blackpool maybe".[8] Other towns have also acquired 'Vegas' nicknames, for example Wangavegas (Wanganui), Ashvegas ( Ashburton) and Stokes Vegas (Stokes Valley). Hamilton will sometimes jokingly appear as 'Hamiltron: City of the Future', apparently after a real suggestion for a city slogan.
Other areas have nicknames based on abbreviation or mangling of the actual Māori name. Thus New Zealanders will sometimes refer to the Taranaki region as "The Naki", Paraparaumu as "Paraparam", Otahuhu as "Otahu", and Wakatipu as "Wakatip".
[edit] Naming disputes
A number of campaigns have attempted to have original Māori names of certain geographical features restored. This has proven successful in a few cases, generally involving mountains, which Māori generally consider as sacred. Mount Taranaki/Egmont, originally known as Taranaki, underwent renaming by Captain James Cook after the First Lord of the Admiralty, John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont. In the 1980s the New Zealand authorities ruled that the mountain had two official names, Mount Taranaki and Mount Egmont. Today most New Zealanders know it as Mount Taranaki. In 1998, and as a result of the settling of the Ngai Tahu Treaty claim, New Zealand's tallest mountain, in the South Island, officially became Aoraki/Mount Cook (note the use of the Kai Tahu regional form of the standard Māori Aorangi). However its European name of Mount Cook still commonly appears.
From time to time Māori groups campaign to correct inaccurately spelled or pronounced Māori place-names. In the early 1990s local iwi suggested renaming the Wellington suburb of Hataitai as Whataitai, referring to a taniwha (sea-monster) which legends told had lived in Wellington Harbour, and replacing a meaningless misspelling. More recently a campaign proposed to rename the town of Wanganui as Whanganui. Wanganui has no meaning in the Māori language but it does reflect the dialectal pronunciation of local Māori, who pronounce 'wh' (normally an "f"-like sound) as "w".
[edit] Further reading
- A W Reed: The Reed dictionary of New Zealand place names. Reed: Auckland, 2002. ISBN 0790007614
[edit] References
- ^ Byrnes, Giselle (2002), '"A Dead Sheet Covered with Meaningless Words?" Place Names and the Cultural Colonization of Tauranga', New Zealand Journal of History, 36, 1, pp.18-35.
- ^ "Muaupoko" in Te Ara: The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
- ^ "Te Arawa explorers" in Te Ara: The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
- ^ "Māori exploration: Western North Island" in Te Ara: The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
- ^ Letters Patent issued on 16 November 1840 entitled "Charter for erecting the Colony of New Zealand, and for creating and establishing a Legislative Council and an Executive Council", reproduced in W. David McIntyre and W.J. Gardner, eds, Speeches and Documents in New Zealand History, Oxford, 1971, pp.54-6.
- ^ New Munster initially included the bottom third of the North Island. See map on page 58 of McIntyre and Gardner.
- ^ Orsman, H.W., (ed.) (1997). The Dictionary of New Zealand English: a dictionary of New Zealandisms on historical principles. Auckland: Oxford University Press, pages 931-932.
- ^ Barber, Lynn, 'Just the spot... for jumping off a cliff', Guardian Unlimited, 27 May 2002: http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2002/may/27/newzealand.extremesportsholidays
