New Zealand place names

Most New Zealand place-names are derived from Māori and British sources. Both groups used names to commemorate notable people, events, places from their homeland, and their ships, or to describe the surrounding area. The Māori did not have a collective name for New Zealand before European arrival, but post-colonisation the name Aotearoa (commonly translated as 'long white cloud') was used to refer to the whole country. Dutch cartographers named the islands Nova Zeelandia and British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand.

Many of the early Māori names were replaced by Europeans during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 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 incorrect spellings and anglicised pronunciations persisted. Many names now have alternative or dual English and Māori names or, in a few rare cases, dual Māori names or dual English names. Most names have never been made official, but if they are mentioned in authoritative publications they are considered recorded names. Colloquial names in New Zealand result from an ironic view of the place's entertainment value, or plays on advertising mottos, or are shortened versions of the full name. Some places tried to capitalise on the success of the The Lord of the Rings films by linking themselves to the movies.

No known pre-contact Māori name for New Zealand as a whole survives, although the Māori had several names for the North and South Islands; including Te Ika-a-Māui (the fish of Māui) for the North Island and Te Waipounamu (the waters of greenstone) or Te Waka o Aoraki (the canoe of Aoraki) for the South Island. Until the early 20th century, Māori also referred to the North Island as Aotearoa, (commonly translated as 'long white cloud'); in modern Māori usage this has become the name for the whole country.

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