Geographical Place Names & Street Names

Place names are given to natural land and seabed features of the earth's surface. They also name man-made features and areas such as localities, suburbs, towns, cities, railway stations, historical sites, homesteads, farms, etc. A place can be distinguished by its feature description, e.g. lake, mountain, stream, beach.

Place names can represent location (where it is), description (what the feature looks like), belonging (culture and identity), recognition (honouring people and events of significance), development (opportunity/investment) and history (ancestral/settlement). Place names are important to New Zealand's infrastructure, social interaction, communication, defence, emergency services, and economy.

The term "street name" in New Zealand usually encompasses street names, road names, state highway names and/or numbers, and sometimes railway and track names.

Names for streets, roads and highways are assigned by the local City or District Council, in accordance with the Local Government Act. Railway names are approved by the NZ Geographic Board, and State Highway numbers are allocated by Transit New Zealand.

What's available

• Geographical Place name search: Search more than 55,000 place names ( by location or by map reference ) or download the New Zealand Geographic Place Names Database
• Electoral Index to Places & Streets: Search the Index, download a printout, or download a copy of the database
• NZ Geographic Board (NZGB): Find out about the functions and membership of the NZGB
• NZGB Rules of Naming: Find a concise list of guiding rules
• NZGB Frameworks: Find a comprehensive document about the functions and processes of the NZGB
• NZGB Proposing a Placename: Find out about the process and how to propose a new name, alter an existing name or restore an original name
• NZGB Place Name Decisions: New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB) decisions
• NZGB Publications: Find maps and books published by the NZGB
• NZGB Act Review: Find out about the proposals to change the NZ Geographic Board Act 1946

LINZ's role

Geographical Place Names:

Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) services the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa, which assigns official place names in New Zealand and the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica. The Board's eight members report to the Minister for Land Information. The Board or the Minister make final decisions on proposed new, changed or restored place names, but not street names, reserves, parks, conservation areas, etc, which come under the jurisdiction of territorial authorities or other government agencies.

Proposals for new, altered or restored place names in New Zealand are publicly notified and objections considered. Some Maori place names of special significance can be processed through Treaty of Waitangi claims, where settlement legislation itself makes the place name official.

The New Zealand Geographic Place Names Database contains 55,000 names sourced from:

• NZTopo, the authoritative topographic database for New Zealand
• New Zealand Geographic Board approvals
• Maps and Charts published by LINZ and its predecessors
• Gazetteer of NZ place names published by the Department of Lands & Survey in 1968

The database does not contain every geographic feature or place named in New Zealand e.g. no off-shore island, seabed and Ross Sea Region place names. Also, some of the place names in the database are not official.

For the purposes of the Electoral Act 1993, an index of electoral place names is also recorded in a separate database. The main role of the Index is to assist electoral returning offices when registering special votes on election day, ie. votes cast by electors in a polling booth located outside of their electorate (or overseas). The address provided by an elector is matched against the Index to identify the correct electorate, and then special voting papers are issued to the voter for that electorate.

Street Names:

Production of the Index to Places and Streets is the responsibility of the Surveyor-General under the Electoral Act. It contains a national listing of electoral place names and street names.

The database that this information is stored in is maintained on a daily basis and is referred to as the Authoritative Streets & Places database (ASP).

ASP is used within the department as the definitive dataset of New Zealand street names as it sources official street names direct from Territorial Authorities, who have the responsibility for road and street naming under the Local Government Act. The database contains high quality data and includes a static and unique feature identifier (SUFI) for every street name.

Street names are also recorded in Landonline and in the topographic database. The ASP is the source for these databases.

Who uses geographical place and street name information

Users include:

• Property owners
• New Zealand city and district councils
• Other New Zealand Government departments e.g. Department of Conservation
• Emergency services: Police; Fire; Civil Defence; Ambulance
• Scientists, historians, genealogists, mapping/charting agencies
• Mariners
• Māori
• New Zealand public
• Electoral users
• Agencies wishing to validate or locate addresses