Our team, working with historic material, often notices New Zealand place names with macrons are misspelled. Omitting a macron can change both meaning and pronunciation. To solve this, we developed a tool to help us quickly check and correct text—then gave it a cringe name: The Place-name Macronator.

The Place-name Macronator is a Windows tool designed to replace Māori place names that lack macrons with their correct spelling. You can check a single word or paste a full page of HTML or a sheet from Excel, as long as it is plain text.

Our main sources for marae, wharenui, and wharekai names in the Western Bay of Plenty were the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Marae Addresses and Map document, the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) place-names database, and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s 1000 Māori Place Names list.

We also added local names significant in Tauranga Moana, and common words frequently misspelled by Pākehā, such as “Māori” and “Pākehā.” You can add your own local names that we may have missed, such as facilities or rooms specific to your workplace or community.

https://www.linz.govt.nz/products-services/place-names/place-names-new-zealand

https://www.boprc.govt.nz/living-in-the-bay/our-places/marae-locations/ 

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/maori-language-week/1000-maori-place-names 

You can type or paste plain text, then press Correct. Once corrected it is already in the clipboard ready to paste (Ctrl V).

Click here to download