All common names for species in this family are the same as the traditional Māori names.
The Māori word kākā derives from the ancient Proto-Polynesian word meaning parrot.
Kākāpō is a logical extension of that name, as pō means night, resulting in kākā of the night or night parrot, reflecting the species' nocturnal behaviour. (
In modern orthography of the Māori language, the long versions of the vowels a and o are written with macrons; i.e., ā and ō.
 Note that a long ā in Maori should be pronounced like the a in English "father".
    However, New Zealanders of European descent commonly pronounce names containing a Māori long ā as if it were an English long a, so that, for example, "Māori" sounds like "Mary".)
 The etymology of kea in Māori is less clear; it might be onomatopoeic of its kee-aah call.
All common names for species in this family are the same as the traditional Māori names. The Māori word kākā derives from the ancient Proto-Polynesian word meaning parrot. Kākāpō is a logical extension of that name, as pō means night, resulting in kākā of the night or night parrot, reflecting the species' nocturnal behaviour. (In modern orthography of the Māori language, the long versions of the vowels a and o are written with macrons; i.e., ā and ō.  Note that a long ā in Maori should be pronounced like the a in English "father".     However, New Zealanders of European descent commonly pronounce names containing a Māori long ā as if it were an English long a, so that, for example, "Māori" sounds like "Mary".)  The etymology of kea in Māori is less clear; it might be onomatopoeic of its kee-aah call.
New Zealand parrot