Place-names

Old May 23rd 2008, 7:10 pm
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Default Place-names

Has there ever been any public discussion in NZ that almost all the largest towns you have got are either named after some British military-heroes or princesses of the royal family. Those which aren't are named something like "New the name of the city in Britain"

Those placenames which are not of British origin are of Maori-origin. Even though they must be almost unpronouncable to the British mouth they are certainly more acceptable than the established names.

That is only for cities. Do you have within Wellington or Auckland streets like Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road etc? Do you have places called Hackney, Islington etc?
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Old May 23rd 2008, 9:48 pm
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Default Re: Place-names

What's not "acceptable" about place names derived from British places? This is common throughout the former British Empire, including USA, Australia, South Africa etc. The majority of the NZ population have British ancestry, and this is reflected in language, culture, laws, education etc etc
Personally, I think the move to change place names would make us look like some sort of Banana Republic. I would also imagine it would also cost a lot of money, and the recent budget shows there's not a lot of that to be thrown around. I was brought up here in the 70s and 80s; to me, Mt Cook will always be Mt Cook, Wanganui will never have an "h" and Auckland will never be called Waikikamukau or anything similar.
Just my $0.02 worth...
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Old May 23rd 2008, 10:27 pm
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What should we do? We could go down the UK route and name every new street and rename a few existing one's Nelson Mandela Way, Nelson Mandela House etc.

I think the names well represent the history of NZ, with so many references to the discoverers Captain Cook and Abel Tasman. Those guys named a lot of places and usually in quite simple terms of what they saw on reaching the land.

NZ's first governor, William Hobson, chose a lot of the names to honour his commander, Lord Auckland. So it transpired that a lot of the other place around here have been influenced by their family name Eden. He would have chosen lots of other names to honour the Royal family, as do all British colonies.

Quite a lot of the land was divided up among the fencible corps (retired UK and Irish soldiers) in the early days depending on their rank and some of those higher ranking guys were given huge tracts of land, it stands to reason that they named places with the names that they knew. There are lots of places named after those early settlers.

Most natural features, rivers, lakes, mountains etc have Maori names or have been returned to their former Maori names. With many other places having a dual name where the Maori and Pakeha both named them, and you'll see that influences a lot of subsequent streets and suburbs. e.g. Auckland in Maori is Tāmaki-makau-rau and there's plenty of references to Tamaki around these parts.

It appears almost compulsory that every new public building must have a Maori name.
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Old May 23rd 2008, 11:21 pm
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Default Re: Place-names

In Crofton Downs (Wellington) there are many English street names, including Downing Street
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Old May 24th 2008, 12:03 am
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Default Re: Place-names

Originally Posted by THR
Those placenames which are not of British origin are of Maori-origin. Even though they must be almost unpronouncable to the British mouth they are certainly more acceptable than the established names.
Says who? I find UK derived place names totally acceptable actually...I think NZ probably has the balance right, in that there are also lots of Maori names as well. As someone else said this is not unique to NZ....why tamper with history all the time ...the names themselves tell a story.
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Old May 24th 2008, 12:05 am
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Talking Re: Place-names

Cuba Street, Wellington...is that sufficiently anti-colonial for you ?
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Old May 24th 2008, 4:03 am
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Default Re: Place-names

Originally Posted by luvwelly
Cuba Street, Wellington...is that sufficiently anti-colonial for you ?
We live in an area called Royal Palms, but all the street names are things like; Bermuda, Bahamas, Monaco, Malibu, Santa Monica? What's that all about?
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Old May 24th 2008, 4:16 am
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Default Re: Place-names

Please, please, pleaseeeeeeeee, don't go down the UK route by becoming 'Politically Correct'. Nothing wrong with the naming of places in NZ.

I love the UK, I hate the PC - it's the worst thing about the UK.

I love how NZ is so politically uncorrect
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Old May 25th 2008, 1:23 am
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Default Re: Place-names

NZ went through a period of being VERY politically correct. To the point of stupidity. On the news they were trying to say all the Maori place names correctly, which is fine, but they took this to idiotic levels and started trying to say English place names the way the Maori would (such as Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington!). The Queen is the head of state in NZ, so there is nothing wrong with having English place names.

All of the cities have Maori names as well, and some places are called their Maori names and English names interchangably (Mt Egmont is also called Mt Taranaki).
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Old May 25th 2008, 2:04 am
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Default Place-names

I have a Maori name the equivalent of Nice Guy is passmeanothertinniebro, bit of a mouthful, but at least it's mine!

Last edited by Nice Guy; May 25th 2008 at 2:19 am. Reason: Another spilling mistake
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Old May 25th 2008, 2:18 am
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Default Re: Place-names

British Expats-Ville-By-The-Sea needs a new road


Let's call it.......


Trolls Court

........

Just make sure it has the necessary "NO EXIT" underneath !!!




Bit like this thread really

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Old May 25th 2008, 4:56 am
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Default Re: Place-names

Here in Chch we have a Torville & Dean St, bit excessive, but I agree with previous posters, on the whole we have a happy mixture of place and street names
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Old May 25th 2008, 11:16 pm
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Default Re: Place-names

Not all the places are named after British royalty etc etc

The Country is called New Zealand. And, my geography can be a bit sketchy at times (I though Azerbijan was the prison in Harry Potter) but i am pretty sure that is not named after the 9th Earl of Cornwall....
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Old May 26th 2008, 2:20 am
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Default Re: Place-names

I quite like the place called Whykickamoocow....
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Old May 26th 2008, 1:57 pm
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Default Re: Place-names

I'm sorry if my op sounded like an attack like "Haven't you been able to invent place-names of your own but have taken them all after British princesses?". That was not my intention and I'm sorry if I came across like it was. It is just that this is one thing which I have often wondered. Applies to countries like Australia, Canada and even the US as well.

The streetscape of Sydney is full of names like Oxford Street, Cambridge Street, Portsmouth Street, Plymouth Street etc.

Btw, has there ever been any case in NZ that some town would have been named after some person but later on it has been found out that the person it was named after was a crook and the name has been changed?
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