Gisborne's name 'pseudo-official'

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Gisborne is not an "official" name for the city, the New Zealand Geographic Board says.

It turns out that the name has not been gazetted and is regarded as a collected or recorded name.

"There is no record in the board's archives for either Gisborne or Turanga (the original Maori name, an abbreviation for Turanga-nui-a-kiwa)," New Zealand Geographic Board secretary Wendy Shaw said.

Many place names were classified as "recorded" and had "pseudo-official status".

The status of Gisborne as a place name is identical to that of the "North Island" and "South Island".

It was revealed last year that those names had never been gazetted.

Gisborne was named after William Gisborne, the colonial secretary in the William Fox-led Government from 1869 to 1872.

It is widely believed the name was changed from Turanga to avoid confusion with Tauranga.

Many sources say the township was named Gisborne in 1870 but some sources cite other dates.

The town's Post Office took the name Gisborne that year. The next confirmed official usage of the Gisborne name was in 1877 when Gisborne Borough Council was formed.

The National Library of New Zealand shows an online drawing of the town described as "hotel buildings, wharf and sailing vessels at Turanganui, the original site of Gisborne, before the township of Gisborne was surveyed and named in 1870".

Approximately 1200 acres was sold for 2000 pounds.

Even after the 1870s it appears that Gisborne, Turanga and Poverty Bay were all interchangeable names for the town for some decades.

The district's original name Turanga, shortened from Turanga-nui-a-Kiwa, refers to Kiwa, thought to have been the tohunga of the Horouta canoe, but he has also been credited with the command of the Takitimu.

- Gisborne Herald