In brief
- NZ First’s new bill would officially make “New Zealand” the country’s legal name.
- Peters says public servants are pushing name changes without public consent.
- Just 8% of Kiwis support naming the country “Aotearoa”, and 19% prefer “Aotearoa New Zealand”, while 66% want “New Zealand”. (“New Zealand Aotearoa” was not tested.)
- The issue is becoming a flashpoint in identity politics.
New Zealand First vs Aotearoa first
New Zealand First’s new Member’s Bill to officially declare “New Zealand” as the country’s name has triggered media pushback and parliamentary squabbling. But polling shows the public mood is decisively against the growing use of “Aotearoa” in official settings.
NZ First’s video protesting the use of “Aotearoa” in Parliament racked up over 50,000 views in less than 24 hours (and nearly 200k in a little over a week). The issue now looks set to become a cultural flashpoint heading into the next election cycle.
Parliament’s Speaker, Gerry Brownlee, has defended the use of “Aotearoa” as common and acceptable, citing its presence on passports and currency. But NZ First’s view is that such changes, however informal, represent mission creep. “If you want to change the country’s name, ask the people. Put it to a vote,” party leader Winston Peters said previously.
The coalition agreement with National explicitly bars any official name change without a referendum.
Peters has argued that government agencies and officials have overstepped. “A bunch of unelected bureaucrats… trying to change our country’s name by stealth, with no permission or consent from the people,” he said in a recent release.
“Only Parliament and the people… have the authority to make decisions about the name of the country,” he argued.
The bill, currently in the Members’ ballot under NZ First MP Andy Foster’s name, affirms that while “New Zealand” appears in law and treaties, it has never been formally declared as the country’s legal name. Peters says this ambiguity has enabled the creeping use of “Aotearoa” across public agencies, departments, and currency without proper mandate.
Polls show overwhelming opposition
While somewhat popular for a time, past polling suggests “Aotearoa” never had anywhere close to majority support. Recent data from a 2024 Research New Zealand poll reveals a further slide. Just 13% of Kiwis support changing the country’s name at all, down from 22% in 2022. Support to change the country’s name among South Islanders is even lower at 9%.
In a separate question offering specific name options, only 8% preferred “Aotearoa” (down from 13%) and 19% favoured “Aotearoa New Zealand” (down from 24%), while 66% (up from 59%) said the country should keep the name “New Zealand.” (Curiously, “New Zealand Aotearoa” never seems to be asked as an option by researchers.)
The numbers suggest that while media narratives often claim popular support for the name “Aotearoa”, using language like “widely used” and “accepted by most New Zealanders”, the vast majority aren’t buying it, and support is decreasing, not increasing.
As one adviser put it, the phrase “New Zealand” may not have changed, but the mood of the country has.
What’s in a name?
The name “Aotearoa” was never used by Māori to describe the whole country before European contact. It was likely coined or popularised by 19th-century European writers and ethnographers, then adopted by some Maori to refer only to the North Island. At the same time, the South was known as Te Waipounamu. In the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand is called “Nu Tireni”, a Māori transliteration of “New Zealand.”
The use of “Aotearoa” to mean the entire country only took off in the late 19th and 20th centuries, driven by schoolbooks, anthem translations, and government branding.
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