< Premium Content Aotearoa Stories Feature Article

How Aotearoa got its Place Names

April 21, 2026

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Article written by Milli Banbury

This article was written using AI as an assistive tool for research and writing.

Learning Options

Recall Questions

Thinking questions

Digital Thinking

Learning Options

Recall Questions

Thinking questions

Digital Thinking

Did You Know?

If you could rename one place in New Zealand based on what it looks like, what would you call it?

Aotearoa even has an official board just for place names, and in 2024 it celebrated 100 years of official place naming. That means people have been carefully recording, checking, and protecting place names for a whole century.

Find out more: How Aotearoa got its Place Names

Vocabulary

Click on the words in the article. See if you can find them all.

Ancestor A person in your family or cultural line who lived long ago. Tara is remembered as an important ancestor in the name Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Settlement A place where people come to live and build a community. Early European settlement changed many place names in New Zealand.

Restore To bring something back to its earlier or original form. Some traditional Māori names have been restored so their stories are not lost.

Thinking Question

Do you think using both Māori and English place names helps tell New Zealand’s story more fairly? Why or why not?

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