Occasionally people ask me about my name, Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal. I was named by my parents as Charles Patrick Royal. Charles comes from my maternal and French great-grandfather, Charles Marchant. My second name comes from the doctor who cared for my mother before I and my twin brother Greg were born. His name was Dr Pat Dunn, a well known Auckland obstetrician of the time.
The family name, Royal, comes from our ancestor Te Roera Hūkiki of Ngāti Raukawa. When he was baptised, his parents gave him the name Te Roera (Royal). At the time, it was customary for children of chiefs to take English artistocratic names when they were baptised. (My ancestor's aunt took the name 'Kuini Wikitōria', Queen Victoria!)
Much later, when I began attending immersion hui (gatherings) at Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa, our tribal college in Ōtaki, our elders there noticed that I did not have a Māori name. Four of my other brothers all had Māori names (Tūroa Te Hukehuke, Tīwai, Haunui and Te Kiniwe) but my twin brother, Greg, and I did not. So these elders, led by the late Tūkawekai Kereama and his sisters Rangiamohia and Rīria, decided that I should have a Māori name. They chose Te Ahukaramū, an ancestor of our family (the father of Te Roera Hūkiki, the first 'Mr Royal') who was prominent in the affairs of our tribe, Ngāti Raukawa, in the first half of the 19th century.