different but related: Can people use the Maori language instead of English for New Zealand citizenship?

The best model to which I can refer you is of Wales - Cymru. Welsh operates in parallel with English, and a small minority (in rural North Wales) speak it in their daily lives. It exists by law on roadsigns and most official documents - as well as in the school curriculum. It is the most successfully retained of the various Celtic languages in the British Isles. The country names of Wales and Cymru are both used and places have dual names -Mount Snowdon is Yr Wyddfa for example. What's the longest name in Maori? Can you beat Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?

@WS2 "a small minority speak it in their daily lives" is a somewhat unfair way of phrasing it, since surveys regularly put the "first or only" figure around 10%, and many will use Welsh regularly along with English depending on context.

@WS2 actually yes, the world's longest recognized place name is holds breath Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoro‌​nukupokaiwhenuakitan‌​ahatahu. But it's just a random hill. Llanfair... is the longest town and probably the longest place name of actual significance other than for having the longest place name.

Why would such a change be needed to be enforced in other languages? For example, yes, it makes sense to use the name Aotearoa if you speak Maori, but why would it be necessary to do so when speaking English (especially if you're not in New Zealand), or Italian, or Chinese, or any other language? For example, if Germany suddenly decided to ask English speakers to stop referring to it as "Germany" and they should use the native term "Deutschland" even if two Americans are speaking between each other, should they be compelled to do so?

@vsz You may want to have that discussion with the government of Côte d'Ivoire. ;)

Is it relevant that "Aotearoa" is an objectively cooler name than "New Zealand"?

@WaterMolecule I dunno, have you ever tried writing NZ / ZN in a 2x2 square grid and then rotating it 90 degrees?

@vsz (and jkej) There are many examples of countries changing name throughout history. "Rhodesia" became "Zimbabwe", and "Siam" became "Thailand", without people insisting that one was "the English version", or needing to be "compelled". "Burma"/"Myanmar" has a more complicated history, due to the advocacy of different political groups at different times. Just because the first word of "New Zealand" is an English word, and the second is a mildly anglicized version of a Dutch one, there's no reason to think it's more "natural" for English-speakers to call it that than "Aotearoa".

@vsz The Czech Republic insisted on being called nothing but the Czech Republic until a couple of years ago when they allowed Czechia as a short form. In German, these names map to Tschechische Republik and Tschechien, respectively. Also, German has a third form, Tschechei, which was the main one the Czech Republic wished would disappear entirely, likely because it was used extensively between 1938 and 1945. So yes, countries requesting that other languages only referring to them in specific ways is nothing new.

@IMSoP : yet none of your examples includes a name change which is a translation from one language to a different one, and then asking other countries to stop translating the name to their own languages. For a very hypothetical example, if Germany decided to become a kingdom, and change the name to "Deutsches Königreich", then they might want to ask English-speaking countries to refer to them as "Kingdom of Germany", but likely wouldn't ask them to try to break their tongue and say "Deutsches Königreich".

@vsz As with 99% of countries around the world, there is no "translation" of Aotearoa, it is simply a name. We don't go around the map picking "more English-sounding" names for every country; we either take the name as-is, or make minor spelling / pronunciation changes for our convenience. It's actually rather bizarre that Germany is named so differently in different languages. We would no more need to be "compelled" to follow the name change than we are "compelled" to use "Istanbul" rather than "Byzantium" or "Constantinople"; it would simply be the name of that place.

@vsz If the proposed name was a calque of "New Zealand" into Maori, you might have a point. But given that "Zealand" is already a Dutch word which we are happily using as the English name (although with a slightly changed spelling for some reason), I'm not even sure that would be possible - a translation of "new sea land", I suppose? That's not what "Aotearoa" means, though, so there's no basis at all to say that "New Zealand" is "the English translation" of it.

@IMSoP : "As with 99% of countries around the world" - that's false. Most countries have different names given to them by at least some of their neighbors or by other countries on the same continent, if their languages differ.

@vsz Obviously, I made the percentage up off the top of my head, but I already gave examples of countries that had successfully changed their names, because most of the time, we accept that countries have a right to name themselves. "Zimbabwe" is clearly not an English word, so by your logic, it should still be called "Rhodesia" because that's "the English name". That's clearly not what happened, and there's no reason to suppose it would happen with "Aotearoa" either; after a few years of getting used to it, it would simply be the name that appeared on maps.

@IMSoP: I think the difference is that with your examples, you have a majority of the country approving the change, whereas with New Zealand you have a minority trying to force the change on people who presumabley don't want it.

@jamesqf That is an entirely different question, and has nothing to do with "translations" - a campaign to rename it "Country McCountryFace" would be no different. It's nothing to do with "enforcing it in other languages", either the name changes or it doesn't.

@vsz This isn't about translating the name New Zealand to Maori. The sticking point is that the country, originally populated by the Maori, is named after a region in Europe. Just translating the name doesn't solve that.

@ws2: I'm sorry if I'm being culturally insensitive, but I really can't imagine telling someone my address in "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch"‌​. Pronunciation: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/…