President Dr Lux Selvanesan said during a special general meeting at Araiteuru Marae on Saturday a referendum about the merits of the words "culture" and "ethnic" took place.
The Dunedin Multi-Ethnic Council was formed in 1993 and now the name needed a "refresher", Dr Selvanesan said.
"People are thinking in different cultural terms."
As more and more people began leaning towards a different mindset about diversity the council decided it was time to put together a referendum to gain thoughts from members and discuss choosing between keeping the current name or changing it to include the word culture.
A majority vote decided on a name change to the Dunedin Multi-Cultural Council.
The decision was decided after community and tangata whenua consultation.
"We really wanted to follow the process of talking to the people of Dunedin, so we had various organisational representatives, we had community representatives and tangata whenua, the marae representatives, they were also there at the consultation meeting.
Dr Selvanesan said he was really satisfied that various community members were able to contribute to the decision.
"I am really satisfied that we have gone through the process, and the city has spoken. So we will be spending the next little while changing to a new logo."
An official event to reveal the new name and logo would be organised later in the year.
