We’ve moved away from Kiora having a last name in official materials. Unknown to us at the time of Kiora’s debut in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, the meaning of the word “atua” in Maori (the language of the indigenous people of New Zealand) refers to concepts that some consider sacred in Maori culture. Since “Kiora” already sounds very close to a Maori greeting (“kia ora”), some assumed—reasonably, I think—that the connection to Maori terms was the intent. Given the spiritual significance of the meaning, we felt the name choice was, in retrospect, not appropriate.

I’m sorry about that. We messed up.

So when it came time to create Kiora’s card, we saw an opportunity to change course on her surname, and decided that the best course of action was to drop it altogether.

We often seek inspiration from real-world cultures in the course of dreaming up Magic worlds, and we sometimes look to linguistic phonemes from real-world languages for naming Magic characters. But it’s never our intent to misappropriate or misapply terms or concepts that are foundational to people’s real-world spiritual beliefs. We’re happy whenever Magic can expose players to styles of fantasy that are inspired by mythologies and cultures other than Western fantasy’s traditional roots. But if we learn that any of our worlds, terms, or characters disrespectfully tread on the sincere beliefs of our fellow humans in contemporary, living cultures, we feel it’s important to take steps to correct that as best we can.

That’s why we have chosen not to list a last name for Kiora on her card and in the Born of the Gods Planeswalker’s Guide entry. We also do not intend to refer to Kiora as having a last name in official creative contexts going forward. Her name is Kiora. Thanks!

It's a very minor change, but they probably could have gotten away without changing it, after all, it feels like pandering.

Last I checked there wasn't much in the way of significant established canon surrounding Kiora, so I don't see that eliminating her last name as being all that big a deal, lorewise.

If it were my decision I might have leaned toward changing it rather than removing it (something about double-named characters usually feels "realer" to me than single-named ones), but that might not have been seen as a viable option here for whatever reason, and it's not like dropping it's really a worse option, just a different one.

That probably would've required a full on retcon whereas with this they can just sort of... decide not to ever use the last name again. It's neater.

I agree though that single names don't have quite the same weight as double-names.

...I forgot his name does that.

Right, new favorite Magic character.

He should team up with Will.I.Am who is T.H.E. Hardest Ever.

People need lives. Someone really gon' be offended by this sort of thing?

Did you know that volcanoes kill more people per year than they tutor? Fun fact.