List of New Zealand place name etymologies

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Source: 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

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

  • Queen Victoria in 1850.[3]

R

S

  • Bishop Selwyn
    . Māori portion translates as "gravelly water"
  • Sinclair Wetlands – named after local farmer Horace Sinclair

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
  • 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

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. ^ "Solar Terrestrial Dispatch – Image Gallery".
  5. ^ "Aurora Australis NZ New Zealand". Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 3 August 2006.
  6. 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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