Mr Porter contacted the newspaper and was told MacKays was how the New Zealand Geographic Board spelt the name.
"I couldn't argue with that.
"Years later, when I was deputy chairman of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth Park, I suggested we could correct the spelling.
"And in the meantime I got to know two descendants of the Mackay family who had already tried to get the board to change it, but they were disregarded completely, so I knew the name was correct and started the battle."
Submissions, from the Friends of Queen Elizabeth Park, Whareroa Guardians Community Trust, and Kapiti US Marines Trust, were presented to the board in 2012 but rejected.
In 2014, the Friends and Whareroa Guardians resubmitted, with fresh information, and the board took an interest.
"The board followed the format, asked if there were any objections, called for any submissions on the change of the name, and they received none, so they took it as correct."
Mr Porter felt key aspects for the board's change of heart was photographs of the Mackay cemetery at Mackays Crossing as well birth certificates and death notices from a newspaper from some of the Mackay family.
He felt satisfied the correct decision had been made.
"People have said 'you'll never convince the board to change' but I knew I was right."
Mr Porter also had a personal interest in the Mackay name because soon after his father came back from World War Two, the Lynch family asked his father Jack about buying the Mackay farm.
"He tried in 1948 but the government wanted to keep the land for seaward side of the railway line to be a park, and the other side to help fund the park.
"The government changed in 1952 and he tried again and got the same answer."
The Mackay link goes back to 1859 when Alexander Mackay, from Northern Ireland, was granted land, due to his military background, in the newly purchased Crown Wainui block.
Mackays Crossing has been known as a reference place in the Wellington district since State Highway 1 opened through the farm area in the early 1900s.
