North Island and Te Ika-a-Muiui refer to the same large island in New Zealand. In 2013, the New Zealand Geographic Board recognized these names as alternative official names. It is not simply a nickname translated by a traveler.
The approach also concerns the South Island, with South Island and Te Waipounamu. It combines well-known English names with Mori names with an older history. A card can choose one name without the other becoming a different place.
Two names do not necessarily indicate a dispute over sovereignty. They can recognize several ways to name a space and transmit its memory. The surprise is less in physical geography than in our habit of believing that an island should have a unique label, as simple and definitive as a house number.
What we know
Alternative official names; no merger into a single mandatory dual name or territory shared between two states.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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