# Why are New Zealanders called "kiwis"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2003, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630 "2003-05-12T05:13:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/1 "2003-05-12T05:13:14Z")
Just wondering, as I’ve heard NZers refer to themselves as kiwis and I’ve heard them being called kiwis by other people too. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/2 "2003-05-12T05:17:20Z")
[Kiwi](http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~rsf/kiwi.html) ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/3 "2003-05-12T05:18:16Z")
Because the kiwi fruit is native to New Zealand; and food-based nicknames are relatively common for inhabitants of a nation; i.e. krauts for Germans, Limeys for Brits, and Frogs for the French. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/4 "2003-05-12T05:19:27Z")
I just read \*\* don’t ask \*\* link; kiwi fruit isn’t native to New Zealand, but the rest of my post stands ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/5 "2003-05-12T05:21:07Z")
You’ll find a brief history of the rise and rise of the kiwi bird in our culture [here](http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwibird.htm), **Aslan2**. We’ve been known, in the nineteenth century, as Fernlanders and Maorilanders, but when the kiwi icon took off in the early part of the 20th century, out-distancing images of the moa and even the silver fern, it stuck. In cartoons from before World War I and on into that era, the Australians were portrayed as a big kangaroo, the British as the lion, while we were the kiwi bird, somehow able to hold a gun and wear the lemon-squeezer hat. It is largely due to Kiwi shoe polish that the icon spread so universally. We like being called Kiwis. We’re just not that fruity, is all. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/6 "2003-05-12T05:22:25Z")
Well kiwi fruit are abundant in NZ and the national bird is the kiwi, so I guess with kiwis being all over the place, the people dubbed themselves that. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/7 "2003-05-12T05:22:34Z")
**DreadCthulu** , you are incorrect. Kiwifruit wasn’t a trademark in existence until the 1950s. We were called Kiwis long before then. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/8 "2003-05-12T05:24:18Z")
Crikey, by the time I opened the thread, grabbed some water, typed a few ims, typed my response then clicked submit, about 80 people had already answered. I never get to be the first response in a thread. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/9 "2003-05-12T05:27:45Z")
You’re incorrect too, **MeanOldLady**. A bit about the origin of the kiwifruit name can be found in this [earlier thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=175511) Despite the tempation to think we are named after the modern term for the Chinese gooseberry, that is historically wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/10 "2003-05-12T10:28:13Z")
Psst! Hey **MeanOldLady** , kiwifruit isn’t exactly abundent over here, it just grows in small parts of the North Island, but they produce a crapload during the picking season. Oh, and the Kiwi (bird) is nocturnal, lives in the dense underbush, has nositals at the tip of it’s beak and their chicks gets happily gobbled up by any introduced mammalian species 😉 There are some traditional ceremonial cloaks that use Kiwi feathers, but since the birds are endangered (only 60-20k left), don’t expect to buy a nice Kiwi jacket on your holidays… ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/11 "2003-05-12T10:46:36Z")
IIRC, the kiwi also has the largest egg, in proportion to its body size, of any bird … a thought which brings tears to my eyes, and makes me ever so glad I’m not a female kiwi. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/12 "2003-05-12T11:14:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*… a thought which brings tears to my eyes, and makes me ever so glad I’m not a female kiwi. \*\* You obviously don’t know much about the reproduction of spotted hyenas. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/13 "2003-05-12T11:21:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*IIRC, the kiwi also has the largest egg, in proportion to its body size, of any bird … a thought which brings tears to my eyes, and makes me ever so glad I’m not a female kiwi. \*\* Yes. About [25% of the female’s body mass](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/apteryx/a._haastii%24narrative.html), and that ain’t all. > [@](#): > > Females cannot eat while gestating, because the egg takes up so much space within the body; therefore, they must use stored fat accumulated over a period of five months previous to fertilization to create the large, nutrient-rich egg. Gestation is uncomfortable for the mother, and generally movement is very restricted during this time. In order to relieve the inflammation and discomfort caused by gestation, a female kiwi will often soak her abdomen in cool puddles when she ventures out of the burrow. It can be tough being an Australasian sheila … 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/14 "2003-05-12T11:59:00Z")
The name comes from the bird, NOT from the kiwifruit which has only been known by this name since fairly recently. ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/15 "2003-05-12T12:07:39Z")
I’m sure it has something to do with sheep. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/16 "2003-05-12T12:17:57Z")
**sailor** – thanks for the agreement. 🙂 **Caught@Work** – BWAHAHAHA!!! (You’ll keep, mate. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/17 "2003-05-12T23:40:18Z")
Really, I thought this kiwi business was all part of mind-control/word-domination plot hatched by the fiendishly evil rulers and populace of NZ. Slowly, oh so slowly they intend to convince everyone else on the planet that that their Antipodes population is as cute and harmless as a fruit/flightless bird and then, then my friend, they will strike! Oh yes, mark my words. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/18 "2003-05-13T00:12:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*The name comes from the bird, NOT from the kiwifruit which has only been known by this name since fairly recently. \*\* And the fruit got its name from its (commercial) association with us (Kiwis), who got our nickname from the bird as **Ice Wolf** has explained. ---
**Author:** ![Peg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Peg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peg)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/19 "2003-05-13T00:13:06Z")
And I believe Peter Jackson’s doing his share of leading the troops. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630/20 "2003-05-13T00:39:29Z")
IIRC, the naming of the fruit was a conscious marketing strategy-- and a very successful one at that-- not just some folk trend that accidentally worked. Chinese Gooseberries just never caught on. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-new-zealanders-called-kiwis/174630.md?page=2)