The river was named by the Maori chief, Turi, who commanded the Aotea canoe (said by tradition to be the second canoe of the Maori migration to reach these shores).
The name has suffered a century of mispronunciation, the local version having a heavy emphasis on the silent letter g (ie: "Waing-gong-goro"), Pakeha people perhaps come cloest when they say "Why-no-no-ro". "Wai" prefixing Maori place-names signifies "water", "ngongoro" seems to refer to the bubbling or gurgliong sound of water, but is connected with the word "snore", so that one suggestion "is the place where Turi slept and snored".
There is no evidence of Maori occupation or tracks. The density of the bush probably meant that Maori travellers would be more likely to travel across behind the Ngaere swamp or along the coast.