Owner Mike McLeod went from fighting a multi-national company to keep the name when he purchased the venue, to being "very happy" to remove his association with it.
The name received flack in the wake of Black Lives Matter marches and a global movement to remove public statues as a protest against systematic racism.
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Mr McLeod wanted to have a conversation with the public about the name, and said he spend a few days getting feedback.
Despite being met with a mixed response, only one response was backed up with good reason, he said.
"I had quite a lot of people telling me not to change the name, but when I started looking at the reasons that people were giving ... I realised most of the people who wanted me to keep the name were just saying, it had always been that."
He said that was not a good enough reason.
"I am comfortable with the decision to remove it."
In a post on the venue’s Facebook page, he outlined his reasoning for the name change, saying Captain Cook was a symbol of colonisation and oppression.
"Because people are hurting, and I did not do this to ostracise and hurt people, I did not want to remind people of oppression and suffering when they came to the venue."
Mr McLeod said he received some backlash over his decision to change the name from people saying they would no longer come to the venue, but it had not concerned him.
The majority of the negative feedback had been directed to his old restaurant page, which led him to believe they were from people who had never come to his new music venue, or realised the downstairs had become a pizza restaurant.
Mr McLeod said he had a few name ideas, and may speak to local iwi about the possibility of using a Maori name, with the hope of having a new name within a week.
Mr McLeod said in the post people had suggested he change the name when he first took over the business.
"I'm no hero for taking two years to understand what they were saying."
The Captain Cook Hotel opened in 1860, and later became a well-known music venue and watering hole for the city’s university students.
It closed in 2013 but reopened in 2018 under operator Mr McLeod.
Last year, the gastro-pub venture on the ground floor closed when New Zealand-based pizza franchise company Sal's took over the lease.
Mr McLeod continues to operate the live music venue upstairs.
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It's tragic that the Black Lives Matter movement, that brought people of all races together as one to address a common cause of police brutality is now going to be dividing opinion in New Zealand along racial and cultural lines. Watch out 'royal' albatross....you'll be next.
One would assume next is to remove the name Cook from all history and all street names that have any connection to anything in the past be changed. One would assume a global pandemic and the resulting economic downturn would be important but as a country we think we are "over it" and everything will be ok, time to focus on joining not dividing
Gone broke, now gunna get woke.
Funny how it's usually the other way around
Isn’t this just re writing history? I get that we will benefit greatly re-considering and understanding symbols and people we have glorified as these/they in many cases were not full of glory at all! But to just cut out and remove what we don’t like? I’m unsure...I’d rather educate, inform about and the darker side to these and for this to be a reminder of the truth of the past and a lesson/guidance for our future.
When will this madness end?, when the sad screaming minority get their way with all statues, place names etc being pulled down and renamed perhaps?. There is all sorts of ists and isms the perpetually offended "woke" could use to do it.
Read the book Trial of the Cannibal Dog and make up your own minds about Captain James Cook. Its a document of of his 3 voyages thru til when he was killed in Hawaii. And if u want to talk about brutalities inflicted find the section in the book about Queen Charlotte sound. Theres also the tragic first contact encounters. He and his Crew did his best including Joseph Banks the amazing botanist with unmatched drawing abilities who Banks peninsula is named. His intentions were good. His scumbag countrymen have a lot to answer for in times after. They, not a nice easy small number of obvious evil doers, brought about much trouble. But it wasnt all one way. New was. Isnt now. Never will be. Dont forget that. Actually I think ppl have forgotten, I'm just unafraid to harbour a bit of foolish hope
It's difficult for some people to adjust to changes like this. but they will get over it. These symbols divide the country and it really is time to remove them.
There will be screams and howls from the "I'm not racist but" crowd who are terrified of a level playing field in life, but as they will tell you, you can not stop progress, and these changes are progress.
Cook was not the person we were taught he was in our English propaganda version of "History" when we were at school, and the time has come to acknowledge that. We need to change the Narrative from "Cook Discovered New Zealand" to something more accurate, like "Cook led the English Invasion of New Zealand". We need to acknowledge that England is on the other side of the planet and that New Zealand is entitled to its own names and its own history and not bound to the English version of the world's history.
It is time that those people who regard England as "Home", went home, and left the people of Aotearoa to get on with being Kiwis.
Lucky Captain Cook got here before Colonel Custer
Was he a symbal of oppression? He was also the greatest sea going navigator of his time and one of the all time greats.He also was a symbal of exploration and adventure.
There's no hope for someone who doesn't know the difference between an explorer and a colonialist. The purported name change may or may not "remind people of oppression and suffering", but it'll certainly remind them of idiocy.
I have nothing in principle against a pub or music venue being renamed, but to do so now and for this reason is little but an ill conceived knee-jerk reaction. Any establishment with such presence and history, which has played a part in so many peoples lives over 160 years deserves a bit more respect shown to its name in my opinion.
The current focus on statues and historical figures and the desire to edit out unsavoury elements of history is simply just providing a distraction from what could be real change to the treatment of minorities following events in the US.
As for Cook himself, as controversial a figure he has become in modern times, his contributions to exploration, science and human endeavour should not be entirely diminished. It is fair to say that anyone born in New Zealand of Maori, European descent or otherwise owes their existence at least in part to the actions of Cook.