Aotearoa (Māori: [aɔ.ˈtɛa.ɾɔa]) is the Māori name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference only to the North Island, with the whole country being referred to as Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu – where Te Ika-a-Māui means North Island, and Te Waipounamu means South Island. In the pre-European era, Māori did not have a collective name for the two islands.
Several meanings for Aotearoa have been proposed; the most popular translation usually given is "land of the long white cloud", or variations thereof. This refers to the cloud formations which are believed to have helped early Polynesian navigators find the country in Māori oral tradition.
Beginning in the late 20th century, Aotearoa has become widespread in the bilingual naming of national organisations and institutions. Since the 1990s, it has been customary for particular parties to sing the New Zealand national anthem, "God Defend New Zealand" (or "Aotearoa"), in both Māori and English, which further exposed the name to a wider audience.
New Zealand English speakers pronounce the word with various degrees of approximation to the original Māori pronunciation, from [ˌɐːɘtæeɘˈɹoːɘ] at one end of the spectrum (nativist) to [ˌæeɘtiːɘˈɹɐʉɘ] at the other. Pronunciations documented in dictionaries of English include , , and .
