The New Zealand Geographic Board sought feedback on its proposal to name the highest peak in the Hector Range as Te Kohua and 37 submissions were received by the closing date on Tuesday, 35 objecting and two supporting.
The board will consider the submissions next year.
This was the most important decision the board would make in the province for many years and it should be consulting widely, surveyor and tramper Peter Dymock, of Alexandra, said in his submission opposing the name.
The board should consult more widely before reaching any decision, he said.
"This is no minor geographic feature, but an important and very prominent mountain with a very large viewing audience."
At the northern end of the Hector Range, southeast of Lake Wakatipu, it was widely visible from many parts of Central Otago, and often mistaken as being "the back view" of the Remarkables, he said.
"It is demeaning to the status and mana of such an important and prominent mountain to call it after a cooking pot."
In its place name proposal report, the board said Reko, a Ngai Tahu chief, guided Otago farmer Nathanael Chalmers on an expedition through the Nevis Valley in 1853.
In doing so, they crossed the range containing the unnamed peak and Mr Chalmers' payment to Reko was a three-legged iron pot.
Mr Dymock said the historical link between the peak and Reko's cooking pot was "tenuous in the extreme".
There was no common, widely-accepted local name for the peak and it was a mystery why such a prominent mountain had remained unnamed for so long, he said.
There was no local community or official support for the proposed name.
Better alternatives would be Nevis Peak, Reko Peak or Hector Peak.
"Daft to the extreme" was how submitter Gordon Stewart, of Cromwell, described the name proposed for the peak.
Mr Stewart suggested last year it should be named Hillary Peak after the late Sir Edmund Hillary, but that was turned down by the board.
The "cooking pot" title was inappropriate, he said, and agreed that the community should have been widely consulted before any name was considered.
