A group of business people think changing Blenheim's name to Marlborough City will help the town leverage off the success of the wine industry.

The name Marlborough is known around the world thanks to the wine industry, but some Kiwis still draw a blank when it comes to Blenheim, a group says.

So they want to change its name to Marlborough City.

A group of business people from the region, most from the wine and hospitality sectors, are pushing for the change to leverage off the success of the wine industry and attract more visitors.

SUPPLIED A sign from 1994 welcomes visitors to Blenheim.

Allan Scott Family Estate general sales manager Mitchell Gardiner said he realised people might laugh at the idea but the group was motivated for the good of the region.

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He attended a show by comedian Dai Henwood, where Blenheim was the butt of a number of jokes, and it concerned him that people might perceive the town as boring, or not know where it was.

FAIRFAX NZ Marlborough is known around the world for its wine.

Marlborough was seen as a desirable location overseas, but no-one had any idea where Blenheim was, he said.

The members of the group, who were in early discussions about the project, wanted to change this and help Blenheim unlock its tourism potential, he said.

Gardiner said the town was warmer than Queenstown and smelled less than Rotorua, but it was missing out on visitor dollars because of a lack of name recognition.

Moa Brewing Company founder Josh Scott said he was approached by the group and said he fully supported the idea.

"It's not about becoming a big city," he said.

"We can get more value out of Blenheim just by making a small change to Marlborough City."

The last census put the population of the town at 26,550, which made it far short of the 50,000 needed for a city, however Scott said this did not affect the choice of name.

"Technically we're not a city, but we're not really getting stuck up on the semantics, it's about giving us more of a profile," he said.

Changing the name might also help rejuvenate the Blenheim town centre, as any increase in visitor numbers would help boost retail and hospitality businesses, he said.

The next step for the group was putting an advert in the paper, and starting a social media page to see if there was genuine interest in the project.

Scott and Gardiner both said they expected the trolls to make fun of the idea, but they wanted to get the ball rolling and see whether there was enough community support before taking it further.

This could involve approaching Destination Marlborough, the regional tourism body, to see if they supported the change and could offer assistance, Scott said.

Destination Marlborough general manager Tracy Johnston said changing Blenheim's name would not change the attributes of the town.

"Visitors will come because of what the region has to offer," she said.

Marlborough Mayor Alistair Sowman said he was surprised by the proposal, saying no-one had ever raised the idea of changing Blenheim's name to him before.

"I think there would be quite a lot of opposition to renaming the town because there's a lot of history here, and I don't think we could call ourselves a city," he said.

However, it was an interesting idea and the council wanted to promote Blenheim and Marlborough more on the basis of its wine industry, he said.

To change a place name in New Zealand, applicants had to make a proposal to the New Zealand Geographic Board.

Geographic Board chairman Mark Dyer said anyone could make a proposal to the board, as long as they filled out the correct forms, provided a map and included evidence of consultation and support for the change.

If the board supported the proposal there was a three-month public notification period, with the opportunity for people to make submissions.

When asked if Blenheim could be called Marlborough City if it did not meet the criteria of a city, Dyer said there was no definition of a city in the New Zealand Geographic Board Act.

The definition was found in the Local Government Act, which said a city had to have a minimum population of 50,000 people, be predominantly urban, a distinct entity and major centre of activity.

Blenheim historian John Orchard said he did not think there would be enough support for the proposal.

"You've got around 150 years of the biggest urban area in Marlborough being called Blenheim.

"I don't see any positive reasons to change, but I can see negative reasons not to."

Before Marlborough split away and became a separate region from Nelson in 1859, the small riverside town was commonly referred to as 'The Beaver', 'Beaver Station' or 'Beaverton'.

The beaver references were made because of how flood prone the settlement was.

Around 1850, a Canadian adventurer arrived in the town during a flood and found his friends on the top bunk of a hut, commenting they were living like beavers in a dam.

The nickname stuck until the region split off and became known as Marlborough, after the Duke of Marlborough, a British war hero that distinguished himself during the Battle of Blenheim.

The town was renamed accordingly and became known as Blenheim, in reference to the grand home the Duke was given for his victory, Blenheim Palace.

Orchard said the proposal to change the name to Marlborough City might lead to other interested parties submitting their own alternatives.

"Any time a name is changed, it causes a large amount of debate and can lead to a lot of ill will," he said.