New Zealand didn’t fight the law but the law won anyway. It turns out that the names of New Zealand’s two main islands were never legally registered with the country’s Geographic Board. Now the government is asking the people of New Zealand what they would name the islands.

While the two main islands of New Zealand are commonly referred to as North Island and South Island, there are actually Maori names for the two islands. The islands are referred to in Maori as Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui) and Te Wei Pounamu (the place of greenstone). Obviously, there’s a a slight difference between the two languages.

Interestingly, the islands were referred to by the Maori name on maps since Cook discovered them in the 1700’s until the 1950’s. In fact, Cook himself referred to the islands by their Maori names. The Maori names could either run alongside the English name or they could replace the English names altogether.

The Geographic Board is planning on getting feedback from the public on potential names in 2010. For their sakes, I hope that they don’t ask the public for their suggestions for names. Ask NASA what happens when they open up naming to public suggestions.