What’s in a name? After recently reading about the release of Richie McKiwi, I decided to investigate what other cool kiwi names are out there, and how they came about.
I also came across a newborn at the West Coast Wildlife Centre. Any ideas for names? Submit your suggestions by commenting below.
As far as kiwi that already have names go, here are some (in no particular order) that stood out:
1. Gingernut – Named because there were orange patches on its head and back (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
Gingernut and his orange patches
3. Koanga – Meaning ‘spring’, named because it was the first chick hatched for the season (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
4. Bella – Meaning ‘beautiful’, named by an Italian tourist (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
5. Shadow – Because the kiwi had interesting shadows inside its egg during incubation (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
The reason Shadow is called Shadow
6. Sonic the hedgehog – Given to a feisty wild chick who was super-active (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
7. Hupai – Around the hatching of the 1000th Operation Nest Egg chick in 2007, Save the Kiwi Trust had a contest to select a name for the chick. More than 1000 entries were submitted. The name ‘Hupai’ which means ‘to overcome’ was chosen (Waimarino Forest).
8. Patch – Named after John Cumberpatch, who had just retired from DOC. Coincidentally, the egg had a tiny hole in its shell that had to be ‘patched’ up, and it hatched with a massive patch of white feathers on its head! (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
9. Bacon – Mainland Foods (Kiwi Bacon) were a sponsor of the Save the Kiwi Trust for a short term, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Kiwi Bacon. To launch the sponsorship, a kiwi was released in Whangarei, with the somewhat dubious name ‘Bacon’ (Whangarei Sanctuary).
Richter cuddling up to another kiwi (Howie), on Valentines Day no less
10. Richter – Named after the Christchurch earthquakes (Richter scale) (West Coast Wildlife Centre).
11. Kimposter – A male who was found incubating another male’s (Kim’s) eggs (Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary).
12. Liz Taylor – Named after being caught with eight different males (Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary).
13. Crikey – Named in memory of Steve Irwin (Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary).
14. Fat Freddy – Named after the New Zealand band—and his fat puku (Whangarei Kiw Sanctuary).
15. Scratch – Named after the blood he left on kiwi ranger Peter Graham’s arm when he was first caught (Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary).
DOC's Paul Cornille with Richie McKiwi
16. Richie McKiwi – Named by children from Purua School to celebrate the Rugby World Cup (Whangarei Kiwi Sanctuary).
17. Nack and Paddywack – Offspring of Nick (Whangarei Sanctuary).
18. Doug and Lass – Doug was caught in a small stand of Douglas fir trees. He had to be chased around the tree trunks, before being caught. Lass is Doug’s mate. She was caught in the same small stand of Douglas fir trees (same place, same night). They had a chick called Fir… (Tongariro Forest Kiwi Sanctuary).
19. Sparkler – Hatched on Guy Fawkes day (Tongariro Forest Kiwi Sanctuary).
20. Peter Pan – Named because he ‘flew through the air’ over a log while being chased (Wendy is his mate) (Tongariro Forest Kiwi Sanctuary).
What’s your favourite kiwi name? Vote here:
Name ideas for the newborn
What should my name be?
A kiwi chick at the West Coast Wildlife Centre hatched yesterday—what are your name ideas?
Bevan Cameron, one of the Haast Biodiversity Asset Rangers, delivered the Haast tokoeka kiwi egg to the West Coast Wildlife Centre on September 28. The Haast DOC rangers actually went in expecting to rescue a chick which was about a week old, but were surprised to pull out an egg instead!
The parents of the egg are called Lightning and Thunder. Yesterday morning the wee chick inside the egg had made the first cracks to the egg overnight—the rangers were lucky enough to be watching when the chick made a third hole with his/her bill! This chick is really vocal and his/her egg was always wobbling around on the bench as the chick was busy inside trying to break out of the egg! It made its grand entry into the world at 1.30pm yesterday!
Leave a comment with your name ideas!
Hi I like ginger nut patch and scratch an a few others I have a little toy baby kiwi and it came with its own egg and you can get it out and I called her patch do you have any other ideas anyone can give me ?
My favourite names for a kiwi would be Wiki or Snorts.
I think the name Crackers would be suitable seeing as Thunder and Lightning created a cracker of a baby.
Teaming with the recent All Blacks’ victory theme, Kiwi Ranger Bridget from the West Coast Wildlife Centre has announced the name of their latest bundle of joy. “WebbEllis was so keen to hatch on time that it kicked right through the bottom of its egg shell! This did very little to deter the chick and it finally popped out of the egg in a very quick 10 minute period, something that normally takes other chicks around 30 minutes!”
The kiwi now has a name! Bridget from the West Coast Wildlife Centre says, “The wee Haast chick has been named by the Batchelor Family from Christchurch, who have donated over $1000 to the kiwi project here at the West Coast Wildlife Centre. They chose to name the chick ‘Don’, after the late Don Merton. There were some great name suggestions, so we’ll keep them in mind for future hatches!”
My suggestion is ‘Kōtiri’ which is shooting star in Maori 🙂 I think the kiwi has a shining star quality already within his heart.
The name Kotiri – I like!
My Suggestion is: “Bolt” 🙂
you can’t beat ‘rangi’ for a good kiwi name…and it’s close to ‘ranga’ as in redhead!
I like the name Piri after Piri Weepu, who was kicking like a legend at the same time the little one was born. Piri also lost his grandad and was not told until after the game. So to say thank you to Piri and his family for letting Piri play and not telling him the sad news until after the game.
1. “Whatitiri” which is the Maori word for thunder….
2. or perhaps “Uira” which is the Maori word for lightning or….
3. “âwhâ” which is the Maori for storm….
4. “Ahu” which is the Maori word for move
Or you could do a combo of several of the above!!
🙂
It would have to be Piri Weepu wouldn’t it, or just Weepu? 🙂
My first thought was STORM as well.
Having looked at the list, I also like RUMBLE
kiwi te kanawa – with excellent vocals … the odd wobble/warble …. and for making a grand entrance as only a true star can do
What about ‘Womble’ – A Womble is a pointy-nosed, furry creature that lives in a burrow, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling human rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. A nice reminder given the unfortunate events transpiring on the east coast.
From the picture ‘Bigfoot’ stands out. Or ‘Tornado’.
How about Egbert – as surprisingly an egg not a chick was found in the nest.
Beth
Flash as in a ground or cloud flash as his parents are Thunder and Lightning.
Flash would work well considering parents names.
I also like Haast after the area he’s from
How about Piri because Piri Weepu blew up a storm around the time this wee chick entered the world!
I suggest Dagg, because we don’t know how lucky we are to have all these Kiwis.
Although, considering the names of his parents and his entry into the world, maybe Thor is more apt.
You could call the kiwi storm which would fit in with its parents names
i know it takes a while to find out whether the chick is a boy or a girl.. what about Sassie (not to insult the baby but those feet are HUGE) Sassie short for Sasquatch.. (you know Big Foot ) 😀
Storm 🙂
Rumble – for his parents’ names and for rolling around in his egg
what a precious baby…hard to think of a name, should be something to go with the parents names but the 2 that pop into my head are Sweet Pea…& Warble 🙂