North and South Islands home tweet home, whatever they're called

One Twitter suggestion was to rename the North and South Islands Ken and Ken, after the Topp Twins characters.

Kiwis have offered up a range of alternative names for the North and South islands - some serious and some not so serious.

The Geographic Board is publicly consulting on proposals to assign official alternative names to the two islands - Te Ika a Maui for the North and Te Waipounamu for the South.

On Twitter, users shared other alternative names for our two largest islands, using the hashtag #nzislands.

The Listener's Toby Manhire had some of the sharpest suggestions, including "Cribs and Baches" and "Warner Bros' Original Mordor" and "Sky City Presents Hobbiton".

Seven Sharp's Jesse Mulligan pitched in with "Big Ted and Little Ted", while fellow comedian Guy Williams suggested we call both islands the South Island "just to screw with people".

Jolisa Gracewood suggested the North Island should be renamed "Punching" and the South Island renamed as "Our Weight".

John Hart (@farmgeek) referred to a chart by James Cook in 1770 hanging above his desk, in which the islands were named "Aeheinomouwe" and "Tovypoenammu", showing Maori-sounding names have been used by the British in the past to describe the islands.

Map: North and South Island suggestions

nz islands Name Change