This article is about Māori naming customs in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Before the 1800s,
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
children would be called by one
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a ...
(simple or composite). These names were attributed to remarkable events around birth. Later in life a person might be given a new name relating to subsequent events.
1800–1900
With the arrival of Europeans, surnames were introduced and soon after a Māori
surname system was devised where a person would take their father's name as a surname, for example:
:Ariki – Maunga Ariki – Waiora Maunga – Te Awa Waiora – Waipapa Te Awa
Māori would also have translations of their names, for example:
:John Te Awa – Hone River – John River – Hone Waipapa Te Awa – John Waipapa Te Awa – Hone Waipapa – John Waipapa
References
Naming customs
Maori
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