Tongan Place Names 



By Edward Winslow Gifford 



INTRODUCTION 



One avenue of approach to the problem of the origin and migrations 

 of the Polynesians lies in a careful study and comparison of place names 

 from various parts of Polynesia. With large series of names from the 

 several groups of Polynesia it will be possible to put the comparison on a 

 firm statistical basis. Moreover, if it were found that Tonga had eighty 

 per cent of her place names in common with Samoa and forty per cent in 

 common with New Zealand, the closer connection with Samoa would be 

 self evident. With large series of place names in hand it will become 

 possible therefore to work out the ethnogeographic interrelations of each 

 Polynesian group with all other Polynesian groups. It is hardly necessary 

 to point out the value of these data in defining the movements of the 

 Polynesian peoples. Until the expeditions of the Bishop Museum in the 

 Pacific have been completed it is premature to attempt a comparison on a 

 statistical basis as suggested above. Consequently, the present paper pre- 

 sents the Tongan data without attempting a detailed comparison with 

 other groups of Polynesia. Tongan intrarelations alone are studied. Four 

 thousand seven hundred and seventy-six place names, utilized for more 

 than eight thousand two hundred locations, are presented. These have 

 been studied as to geographic distribution and frequency of occurrence in 

 diflferent parts of the Tongon archipelago. One aim of this study is to 

 determine if possible the direction of movement within the archipelago — 

 that it, whether from north to south or from south to north. 



Several thousand place names were obtained from the records in the 

 Tongan Lands Ofiice, which were courteously put at my disposal by the 

 Honorable William Tungi, Minister for Lands. Mr. A. B. Wallace. 

 Minister for Works, gave me access to the maps showing the location of 

 hereditary lands in the Kingdom. The Reverend E. E. V. Collocott sent 

 me in 1922 a list of names from the island of Niuafoou, which corroborated 

 the Niuafoou list I made in Nukualofa (the capital of Tonga) and fur- 

 nished forty new names. 



For the translation of place names I am indebted to several residents 

 of Tonga: namely, Mrs. May Laurence, Mr. Solomon Ata, Mr. August 

 Hettig, Miss Beatrice Shirley Baker, Mr. Alphonse J. Gaffney. and Mr. 

 William Tungi. The translations have been studied by the author with 

 the aid of two excellent dictionaries of the Tongan language, one compiled 



