Toi (Polynesian name)

Toi is a fairly common man's name in Māori and other Polynesian languages.

The best known men named Toi are the following from Māori legendary history, who are sometimes confused with one another:

• Toi-te-huatahi, about whom there are various traditions. In Te Arawa tradition, a chief who never left Hawaiki. In the Ngati Awa tradition, a descendant of the fantail, the original settler of New Zealand. In the discredited 'orthodox' or "Great Fleet" story, a man from Hawaiki who settled at Whakatane after following his grandson Whatonga.
• Toi-te-huatahi II, in the discredited Great Fleet story, a man who settled at Whakatane after following his grandson Whatonga, much later than Toi-te-huatahi I.
• Toi-kai-rākau, an ancestor of the Tūhoe tribe. In some traditions, this is an alternative name for Toi-te-huatahi.

The descendants of Toi-kai-rākau are named Te Tini-a-Toi – the many descendants of Toi. In the part of the Bay of Plenty where the Mātaatua canoe landed, these descendants were divided into at least 18 groups or hapu.[1] Sometimes also the name Te Tini o Toi is used.