Maori Names

Structure & order

Precolonization Māori usually had a single name (e.g. Hokotahi), which could include a definitive prefix such as Te (e.g. Te Apurangi).

Following European contact, Māori adopted both given names and surnames, yielding a Western [GIVEN] [SURNAME] order. Names of three kinds combine in practice, Māori (M), non-Māori (N), and Māori-fied non-Māori (X), across given (g) and surname (s) slots:

[GIVEN(M/N/X)] [SURNAME(M/N/X)]

Observed patterns (from the source):

Given names

Precolonial Māori given names could be:

• commemorative (Williams 1912);
• descriptive of the person (Taylor 1974 [1855]: 157);
• a reference to a person’s occupation.

Sexual distinction between names was minimal, but a few female names contained hine (‘woman’) and a few male names tane (‘man’) or tama (‘man’).

Selection customs: Persons of high rank could have at least two names, a baby name and a later name. Names could be changed, e.g. by taking the name of a dead person, by celebrating success in a battle or some other activity, or by adding to an existing name.

After missionary arrival, many Māori took biblical given names, e.g. Enoka (Enoch). Over subsequent decades there were widespread counter-movements rejecting Christian names, e.g. Erueti (Edward) Te Whiti reverted to his birth name Te Whiti-o-Rongomai.

Family names & patronymics

Māori did not traditionally use surnames; the single-name system carried no inherited family name. Surnames emerged through European contact via three processes:

1. Missionaries insisted that Māori have both a given name and a surname.
2. Hundreds of Pākeha Māori (Europeans living with and often as Māori) Westernized their wives and children (Bentley 1999: 203), giving them at least one non-Māori name by the 1830s.
3. Schools often gave children English given names and surnames.

By World War I almost all Māori had given names and surnames (Pugsley 2006). O’Regan notes the main Māori motivation: assimilation into the Pākeha world was ‘one of survival’ (2001: 137).

Particle: the definitive prefix Te (e.g. Te Apurangi, Te Wake, Te Whiti, Te Wehi) attaches to Māori names.

Mixed double-barrelled surnames occasionally occur, combining a Māori and a non-Māori element, e.g. Te Rauhi Horomona-Solomon.

How to address someone

The source provides no specific information on Māori salutation, honorifics, or titles.

Pitfalls for software

• Single names with no surname were the norm precolonially; surnames are a colonial overlay, so historical Māori names should not be parsed for a family name.
• Definitive prefix Te is part of the name, not a freestanding word, and should be kept attached (Te Wake, Te Whiti).
• Names could change over a lifetime (battle success, taking a deceased person’s name, additive naming), so a person may be attested under multiple names.
• Minimal gender marking: only hine (female) and tane/tama (male) elements weakly signal sex; most names are not gendered.
• Three name types intermix (M / N / X) within one full name, and a single individual may carry two complete parallel name-sets for Māori vs non-Māori contexts, a major hazard for de-duplication and identity matching.
• Māori-fied non-Māori names (X) are transliterations of European names (Kingi = King, Ihaka = Isaac, Wiremu = William, Hone = John, Enoka = Enoch) and may not be recognizable as their English source.
• Mixed double-barrelled surnames (e.g. Horomona-Solomon) pair a Māori and a non-Māori element.