Talk:Omarama

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Ōmārama seems to be the correct name, not Omarama OR Ōmarama

Kiwiisabirdok (talk) 05:50, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 23 May 2025

It has been proposed in this section that Omarama be renamed and moved to Ōmārama.

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Omarama → Ōmārama – There is not official place name "Omarama" on the gazetteer. The only official "Ōmarama" refers to a different town and is not relevant here. The spelling "Ōmārama" is used by a local library, which we can see is actually in the correct town via the map on their page: https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/Libraries/Visit/%C5%8Cm%C4%81rama-Community-Library a site specifically dedicated to Waitaki tourism, which we again can tell is talking about THIS Ōmārama https://waitakinz.com/destinations/omarama the Waitaki district council https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/Council/Consultation/Closed-consultation/Closed/%C5%8Cm%C4%81rama-Masterplan the Ōmārama gazette, which mentions being in Waitaki which means it's OUR Ōmārama https://omaramagazette.nz/public/img/pdfs/Omarama-Gazette-November-2024.pdf RNZ, and again this article references the location so we know it's OUR Ōmārama https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473128/omarama-residents-st-john-disagree-on-urgent-medical-care NZ transport agency https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/ev-chargers/canterbury/2459 I could go on and on. It's clearly Ōmārama. I'm making this a requested move because the Gazetteer hasn't given an official position on Ōmārama, (again, the bold offical Ōmarama is for a town in the north island, nowhere near Ōmārama) Kiwiisabirdok (talk) 05:50, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support - 'Omarama' is not an official name, and it is not listed on the gazetteer. Ōmārama spelled with macrons is definitely increasing in popularity (as you have mentioned above) and even 100 Percent Pure New Zealand uses 'Ōmārama', instead of 'Omarama'. Alexeyevitch^(talk) 08:00, 23 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose Despite what the nominator states it definitely is not clear which title is correct/proper. See Te Ara [1], AA Traveller [2] and NZ police [3] for just a couple using a different form.

The gazetteer has an Ōmārama listed as a historic site with the description 'A historic kāinga north of Omarama (locality). Feature shown on: NZTopo50-CA15 601712', which is not official. For Omarama the Gazetteer quotes Reed stating: 'In later times it was said that marama is the Maori pronunciation of marram grass, which was planted here under government instructions. According to Herries Beattie the name refers to a chief, Marama.' You might argue that the town is obviously named after the historic site and therefore we should use the spelling of the historic site but I don't see any source making such a connection. I'd need to see a very good source to support the idea that Ōmārama is the correct spelling with other forms being incorrect. This is also potentially a case where Maori spelling varies between different people/tribes. Traumnovelle (talk) 06:38, 24 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for giving some examples of the other spelling. However none of the three are Waitaki specific sources, whereas the sources I've found that actually originate from the area itself lean towards Ōmārama. This means Ōmārama is still more likely to be the correct name if it is the name locals use. Kiwiisabirdok (talk) 00:53, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is no reason to prefer local sources over national ones, regardless this is a local source: [4] with the alternative spelling and the Waitaki District Council isn't even consistent in how they spell it: [5] Traumnovelle (talk) 09:26, 28 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose Sorry, but I don't see any compelling reason to make a change yet. The LINZ Gazetteer continues to list "Omarama" (though not official) as the name of the locality. It lists "Ōmārama" (also not official) only as the name of a nearby historic site - not the town (locality) itself. (It also lists "Ōmarama" (official) as the name of an unrelated hill in the North Island.) Given the uncertainty about what the Māori spelling of the name should be (i.e., is there one tohutō or two?), it seems clear that we should defer any change here until LINZ makes a decision. PatricKiwi (talk) 21:28, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Unofficial Gazetteer listings aren't relevant here. I understand that it lists "Omarama" as an unofficial name but that had far less relevance than local sources. Kiwiisabirdok (talk) 00:49, 27 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]