The news was met by disbelief in the West Coast town this morning.
The tourism hotspot is still rebuilding after Covid-19. It also grappling with a proposal to clear people out of their homes and off their farms on the south of the river, to let the river fan out and reduce the flood risk to the northern bank township.
The Geographic Board said someone approached it saying that Julius von Haast named the glacier in 1866 after Kaiser Franz Joseph I (1830-1916), the Emperor of Austria at the time.
They provided a large number of Austrian and German historical sources to verify that the correct spelling of the emperor's name is 'Franz Joseph'.
An 1866 sketch by von Haast shows 'Franz Joseph Glacier' and there is evidence on early maps and plans of the spelling 'Joseph'.
The emperor's death certificate records his name as 'Franz Joseph der Erste, Kaiser von Osterreich'.
The board has opened submissions on the proposed named change for just over one month.
"They want to do away with the south side (of Franz)," said long term resident Anj Kremer today, referring to a proposal to let the river expand out over the south of the town.
"Why not do away with the name and make it Waiho Gorge," she said.
The town's community council chairman, Adam Haugh, was stunned as he contemplated what it would mean for businesses with signs, leaflets and websites.
"It would never happen. There's no way in hell it would happen.
"It's way too much. We've enough on our plates."
At Glacier Country Tourism, chairman Mike Nolan said he wanted to see the evidence for a name change.
The township was initially named Waiho (a corruption of Waiau) and altered to the official name Franz Josef Glacier in 1981.
In 1998 the town Franz Josef/Waiau and Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere were both altered from Franz Josef Glacier to the official dual place names under the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act.
That means the Geographic Board cannot amend place names through the standard process.
"The names form part of the redress/settlement between the Crown and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and can only be amended by statute," it said.
Te Runanga o Makaawhio chairman Paul Madgwick said Julius von Haast came through and superseded the Waiau name which had existed for a millennium.
"It was removed by a German geologist for an Austrian emperor who had never laid eyes on the place."
He said iwi understood it was inconvenient and people would have to change their business names, but that was a long process.
They were more concerned about the corruption of the Waiho name which should be Waiau, but had been bastardised.
"We have to endure the corrupted name."
Submissions close on December 12 and more information is at https://www.linz.govt.nz/consultations/franz-joseph-waiau
Westland Mayor Helen Lash has been approached for comment.
