This page sets out consensus for naming conventions in New Zealand. It describes those cases where New Zealand practice differs from universal Wikipedia conventions for article titles, or where cases specific to New Zealand are not covered in the global policy. For cases not covered here, the global policy applies.

Words of Māori language origin[edit]

Macrons for long vowels

Māori words, when they appear as the title of articles, are usually written with macrons indicating long vowels, and with a redirect from the unmacronned form. Thus, for example, the article Māori people has a redirect at Maori people, not the other way round.

Pluralisation

Except in rare instances—usually explained in the articles—the standard Māori language pluralisation is used (in general, Māori uses the same form for the singular and plural of words). Thus, for example, the article Kiwi (bird) uses the same spelling to refer to singular and plural, whereas the article on Kiwi (people) uses "Kiwis" as the plural and explains this plural usage within the article.

Place names of Māori language origin[edit]

Where the commonly used name is of Māori origin, use the spelling as defined in the New Zealand Gazetteer if the entry is labelled "official". Do not take guidance from the New Zealand Gazetteer if the entry is labelled as "not official"; in this case Wikipedia's normal naming policy applies.

Following WP:MPN, where the official name includes a macron, but the majority of recent sources do not, then consider including a mention of the un-macronned name in the text. For example, Taupō is the article name, and the article could explain that the town is still often written as Taupo.

Where the commonly used name is of English origin but there is also a name in Māori, list the italicised Māori name in the article, including macrons. For example, the Christchurch article mentions the Māori name Ōtautahi.

In the infobox of a geographical article, if the article title consists of words of Māori language origin with an official spelling, show only the official spelling. If the common and Māori names are different, show them as follows:

English name
Māori name (Māori)

When adding a Māori language name to an infobox, use the spelling as per the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ, the parent organisation for NZGB) database.[1]

Disambiguation of New Zealand place names[edit]

New Zealand place names are written simply as the place name, unless confusion is likely to occur with duplicated names within the country or outside it. It should be noted that in almost all cases the New Zealand Geographic Board includes the type of geographic feature (e.g. Lake, Stream, Island) as part of the name, a proper noun.

This guideline applies to named populated places (cities, towns, suburbs, settlements, farms), natural landscape features (including but not limited to lakes, rivers, streams, glaciers, wetlands, headlands, mountains, hills, ranges, plains) and man-made features (dams, roads, railways, parks, mines). For geographic features with macrons, please see below.

  1. No disambiguation required – If the common name of a New Zealand place is unique (or likely to be unique) in the world, then it alone is used as the article's title – (for example, Ōtorohanga). This form is also used if the New Zealand place is the primary topic for the non-unique name (for example, Dunedin). Confusion has to be likely, not merely possible: for example, Wellington, the capital, is known all over the world, whereas the other 30 or so places with the same name have fairly local significance only.
  2. Disambiguation required for populated place – For populated places where confusion is likely with places outside New Zealand (including suburbs), then the format "Placename, New Zealand" is used (for example, Amberley, New Zealand).
  3. Disambiguation required for non-populated place – For geographic features, if confusion is likely with places outside New Zealand, then the format "Placename (New Zealand)" is used, irrespective of the type of location (for example, Mount Hopkins (New Zealand)).
  4. Disambiguation required for features within populated places – If the places are features of specific cities or towns, such as parks, buildings, schools, or streets, the name of the town or city is used (for example, Stuart Street, Dunedin).
    • As mentioned above, this does not apply to suburbs (unless there is more than one place in New Zealand of the same name, in which case the city name is used).
    • If the feature is named for the city or town itself and disambiguation is required with overseas features, then "Feature, New Zealand" is used (e.g. Stratford High School, New Zealand).
  5. Disambiguation required for more than one NZ place name – If disambiguation is required due to multiple places in New Zealand having the same name, the following rules are used:

Dual and alternative place names[edit]

Since the 1980s, the New Zealand Geographic Board has changed the names of a number of New Zealand places to include the original Māori name of the place as well as the European name used for the last 100–200 years. Many of these renamings have been the result of Treaty of Waitangi claim settlements. The revised names take two forms:[2]

  1. Dual names consist of an English name and a Māori name, usually separated by a spaced slash, e.g. Mayor Island / Tūhua. Many dual names use older forms of orthography, such as parentheses, e.g. The Pyramid (Tarakoikoia), or an unspaced slash, e.g. Aoraki/Mount Cook, however these are being standardised to a spaced slash form. The order of the names also varies, with some having the Māori name first and others the English name.
    If recorded as an official name, the dual form must be used in official documents, but otherwise people are free to use the English name, the Māori name or the dual form.
  2. Alternative names have two forms with equal weight, e.g. Wanganui and Whanganui. People are expected to use one or the other but not both together. (In the case of Whanganui and Wanganui, the decision included a directive that Government bodies would use Whanganui, but this is not usually the case.)

Convention for dual names

If an article title uses a location's dual name, it should use the spaced slash format, regardless of the orthography recorded by the New Zealand Geographic Board. For example, Aoraki / Mount Cook and not Aoraki/Mount Cook or Aoraki (Mount Cook). Article titles that include a slash should be listed at Wikipedia:Articles with slashes in title, to help distinguish them from subpages.

Convention for alternative names

The article should be placed at the name that reliable sources indicate has more common usage. A redirect should be created for the name that is not used as the article title. If one name would require disambiguation while the other would not, the non-ambiguous name may be preferred. The date of renaming should be noted and sourced in the article. Links to the article may use whichever name is appropriate in the context.

Changed place names[edit]

In a few instances the Geographic Board has changed the name of a place, generally from an English name to a Māori one, without creating a dual or alternative name, e.g. Whale Island (New Zealand) became Moutohora Island.

The article should be placed at the name which recent reliable sources indicate has more common usage. Thus an article may be moved some years after a name is changed, reflecting a change in usage. The fact of the change should be prominently mentioned and referenced in the article.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "Find Māori place names, dual names and alternative names". Land Information New Zealand. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  2. ^ "What is the difference between alternative naming and dual naming?" at Wanganui proposed change to Whanganui, LINZ.
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