Cook Islands Online Cenotaph
Preserving Cook Islands Military History​

The names listed in the heading are the names recorded on enlistment. We have included information such as 'also known as' along with spelling variations. Naming conventions in the Cook Islands at the time of WWl were simple with people having one given name only. This was a problem for the European recruiters from New Zealand who wanted a first name and a surname on enlistment as per western standards. In many cases, soldiers used their given name followed by their father's first name. This can easily be interpreted to "A" (given name) son of "B" (father's given name). In a number of cases, the soldier had evidently been listed in records with the first and last names transposed i.e. father's given name followed by the soldier's given name.