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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 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. ==Country and main islands== 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. The first European visitor to New Zealand, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, named the islands ''Staten Landt'', believing it formed part of the land which Jacob Le Maire had seen off the coast of Tierra del Fuego. Hendrik Brouwer proved the supposedly South American land an island in 1643, and Dutch cartographers subsequently renamed Tasman's discovery ''Nova Zeelandia'', after the Dutch province of Zeeland. The Latin ''Nova Zeelandia'' became ''Nieuw Zeeland'' in Dutch, and British explorer James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand, an anglicised form of the Dutch name. The 1840 Letters Patent established New Zealand as a British colony and claimed the "principal islands" of New Zealand, identified by their commonly-known names at the time: the Northern Island (the North Island), the Middle Island (the South Island) and Stewart's Island or "South Island".〔 The letters patent attempted to rename the islands New Ulster, New Munster and New Leinster after the provinces in Ireland. New Ulster, New Munster and New Leinster were also used for the initial provinces of New Zealand, but the names did not endure. In the 1830s the South Island was used as an alternative to Middle Island and by 1907 it became the common name. The North and South Island names arose through common usage rather than official declaration and in 2009 it was revealed that they had never been formalised. In 2013, alternative names were formalised for the two main islands, as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu, with either English or Māori name being used or a combination of both. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New Zealand place names」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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