'Better than Porirua': Wellington locals grapple with name change

View of houses in Johnsonville. Photo / DB Thats-Me

Residents of Wellington suburb of Johnsonville are up in arms after one local took to Facebook to suggest the name of their beloved suburb should be changed.

The man posted to popular Wellington-based Facebook page Vic Deals to survey locals about a possible change.

"Johnsonville! Do you like the name Johnsonville? Does it fill you with excitement and pride (if you live there)?" he wrote.

"Johnsonville is named after Frank Johnson, one of the early European settlers in the area. In the early 1840s he acquired land and built a house by the Johnsonville stream and a timber mill near the centre of modern Johnsonville. It became known as Johnson's Clearing.

"According to Wikipedia, Johnson "quickly denuded the entire Johnsonville area of virgin native forest, with timber sold to help build the nearby town of Wellington". Having massively changed the environment, he sold the land at a substantial profit and went home to England by 1858.

"Is Johnsonville the best name to represent this area going forward into the future? Any thoughts on an alternative?"

Opinion was split on whether the area needed to update its moniker with some suggesting that history should be respected, while other calling for the name to reflect the area's Māori history instead.

"Yeah it's a great name and suits the history well," wrote one man, while another said the issue was "not really something to get stirred up over unless you're tangata whenua".

J'ville, looking good in the early 70s. Photo / File

Another commenter argued: "I don't think any non-Māori name should be used for any place names in Aotearoa. All of it is colonisation whether it happened centuries back, or today."

Others suggested the name should be changed to Waitohi, a name already in use at the local library and which was the original name of the Waitohi stream, the mouth of the stream being referred to as Ngā Ūranga or landing place of waka/canoes. The name Ngāūranga stream was later adopted by colonists to refer to the entire stream.

The plea to change the name fell on deaf ears for some, who argued that changing the name would mean that other areas would need to change.

"Would we change Wellington, Plimmerton, Whitby?" argued one.

Some residents of J'Ville, as the suburb is often known, thought that the suburb had bigger issues to deal with before a name change was considered.

"Can they please just demolish the mall and give us a new one like has been promised for decades?" asked one user.

Another suggested the name should be changed to "Jabbaville: Gateway to the Hutt" while one man joked that whatever the name, the area was "still better than Porirua".