Chris McVeigh KC: What's in a name?

What's in a name? It is tempting to approach the current vogue aimed at replacing all the well established and familiar place names in New Zealand (including that name itself) with maori alternatives, as some kind of shallow exercise in preening vanity practised by a coterie of self righteous plonkers, but I don't propose doing that here.

So I'll do it here instead.

No, no but seriously and much and all as I'd gain a degree of personal satisfaction from a bit of undignified name calling, I must resist that temptation and accord those who indulge themselves in this way the respect their activities don't deserve and reluctantly resist any temptation to cater to my baser instincts.

Centrist: ‘Aotearoa’ declining in popularity, as NZ First pushes name bill

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.