 Most New Zealand place-names are derived from Māori and British sources. Both groups used names to commemorate notable people, events, places from their homeland, and their ships, or to describe the surrounding area. The Māori did not have a collective name for New Zealand before European arrival, but post-colonisation the name Aotearoa (commonly translated as'long white cloud') was used to refer to the whole country. Dutch cartographers named the islands Nova Zeelandia and British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand.
