 | Thisguideline documents an English Wikipedianaming convention. Editors should generally follow it, thoughexceptions may apply.Substantive edits to this page should reflectconsensus. When in doubt, discuss first onthis guideline's talk page. |
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This page sets out consensus fornaming conventions inNew Zealand. It describes those cases where New Zealand practice differs from universal Wikipedia conventions forarticle titles, or where cases specific to New Zealand are not covered in the global policy. For cases not covered here, the global policy applies.
Māori words, when they appear as the title of articles, are usually written withmacrons indicatinglong vowels, and with a redirect from the unmacronned form. Thus, for example, the articleMāori people has a redirect fromMaori people, not the other way round.
Except in rare instances—usually explained in the articles—the standard Māori language pluralisation is used (in general, Māori uses the same form for the singular and plural of words). Thus, for example, the articleKiwi (bird) uses the same spelling to refer to singular and plural, whereas the article onKiwi (people) uses "Kiwis" as the plural and explains this plural usage within the article.
Where the commonly used name is of Māori origin, use the spelling as defined in theNew Zealand Gazetteer if the entry is labelled "official". Do not take guidance from theNew Zealand Gazetteer if the entry is labelled as "not official"; in this caseWikipedia's normal naming policy applies.
FollowingWP:MPN, where the official name includes a macron, but the majority of recent sources do not, then consider including a mention of the un-macronned name in the text. For example, Taupō is the article name, and the article could explain that the town is still often written as Taupo.
Where the commonly used name is of English origin but there is also a name in Māori, list the italicised Māori name in the article, including macrons. For example, theChristchurch article mentions the Māori nameŌtautahi.
In the infobox of a geographical article, if the article title consists of words of Māori language origin with an official spelling, show only the official spelling. If the common and Māori names are different, show them as follows:
When adding a Māori language name to an infobox, use the spelling as per theLand Information New Zealand (LINZ, the parent organisation for NZGB) database.[1]
New Zealand place names are written simply as the place name, unless confusion is likely to occur with duplicated names within the country or outside it. It should be noted that in almost all cases the New Zealand Geographic Board includes the type of geographic feature (e.g. Lake, Stream, Island) as part of the name, a proper noun.
This guideline applies to named populated places (cities, towns, suburbs, settlements, farms), natural landscape features (including but not limited to lakes, rivers, streams, glaciers, wetlands, headlands, mountains, hills, ranges, plains) and man-made features (dams, roads, railways, parks, mines). For geographic features with macrons, please see below.
Since the 1980s, theNew Zealand Geographic Board has changed the names of a number of New Zealand places to include the original Māori name of the place as well as the European name used for the last 100–200 years. Many of these renamings have been the result ofTreaty of Waitangi claim settlements.The revised names take two forms:[2]
If an article title uses a location's dual name, it should use the spaced slash format, regardless of the orthography recorded by the New Zealand Geographic Board. For example,Aoraki / Mount Cook and notAoraki/Mount Cook orAoraki (Mount Cook). Article titles that include a slash should be listed atWikipedia:Articles with slashes in title, to help distinguish them from subpages.
The article should be placed at the name that reliable sources indicate has more common usage. A redirect should be created for the name that is not used as the article title. If one name would require disambiguation while the other would not, the non-ambiguous name may be preferred. The date of renaming should be noted and sourced in the article. Links to the article may use whichever name is appropriate in the context.
In a few instances the Geographic Board has changed the name of a place, generally from an English name to a Māori one, without creating a dual or alternative name, e.g.Whale Island (New Zealand) becameMoutohora Island.
The article should be placed at the name whichrecent reliable sources indicate has more common usage. Thus an article may be moved some years after a name is changed, reflecting a change in usage. The fact of the change should be prominently mentioned and referenced in the article.