The news was met with disbelief in the town, where a number of businesses have the word Josef in their name and street signs, from the Top 10 Holiday Park to the YHA, a quad bike business, Scenic Circle Franz Josef and Franz Josef Glacier Guides.
A member of the public has formally applied to the geographic board for the name change, or correction.
News of the potential change blew up on social media across a number of sites, drawing hundreds of angry responses, from "A plan to waste money when there are cost of living pressures" to "How long has it been now that they've just figured out it was spelled incorrectly?"
A Franz Josef Facebook page encouraged people to lodge submissions against the proposal by December 12.
The mayor said it could cost tourism operators dearly. It would even affect the council, which would have to change its rating database to be compatible with Land Information New Zealand, as well as new signs.
"Everybody who lives there will be impacted. I don't support it."
Mrs Lash will be making a personal submission against the name change, as well as the council.
Development West Coast destination and tourism manager Patrick Dault said it would create unnecessary costs for businesses to update their marketing.
"People will use Google, so the spelling doesn't really count. There is significant reference in the travel documentation and reviews [which play an important role in travel planning], so this might have an impact on duplicating the amount of content there is and lead to people missing out on some information because rather than redirect incorrect spelling from Franz Joseph [which happens a lot — especially with autocorrect] it would lead to more content."
The Josef spelling first appears in the newspapers in 1885, in the West Coast Times. Six years earlier, the same newspaper referred to Franz Joseph.
Sporadic use of the "ph" spelling continued through to the 1980s, although the "f" has been overwhelmingly preferred.
In 1946, acting on the recommendation of the Geographical Society, which had been conducting inquiries, the Post and Telegraph Department used the spelling Franz Joseph.
"Evidence was produced by the society to show that [Julius] von Haast named the glacier Francis Joseph," it was reported.
In 1949, this was backed again by the Geographic Board. But people apparently kept the "f" spelling.
The Geographic Board said the proposal submitted to it noted the glacier had been named in 1866 after Kaiser Franz Joseph I (1830-1916), the Emperor of Austria at the time.
The applicant also provided a large number of Austrian and German historical sources to verify that the correct spelling of the emperor's name as Franz Joseph.
An 1866 sketch by von Haast describes it as 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.
Public submissions on the application close on December 12.
