 It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole of New Zealand before the arrival of Europeans, but post-colonisation the name "Aotearoa" (commonly translated as 'long white cloud') has been used to refer to the whole country.Dutch cartographers named the islands "Nova Zeelandia," the Latin translation of the Dutch "Nieuw Zeeland" (after the Dutch province of Zeeland).By the time of British exploration, the country's name was anglicised to New Zealand.