The word derives from Old Dutch holt land, meaning “wood land,” and it specifically refers to one region of the Netherlands. Calling the Netherlands “Holland” is a bit like calling the United Kingdom “England.” People might not call you out if you happen to do so, but it's not necessarily accurate.
Rebranding A Nation
Because tourists primarily visit cities in the region of Holland, largely ignoring the other 10 provinces, the government has decided to work to attract focus on the country as a whole. The Dutch government is transitioning to using “The Netherlands” in all of its official branding.
Someone from the Netherlands is called Dutch although you'd say in Dutch Nederlander. The fact that we call people from the Netherlands Dutch in English has historical roots. Dutch shares a linguistic past with Germany, so English speakers used to group them together using the word for “nation” in old English.
In the Dutch language, the Dutch refer to themselves as Nederlanders.
[ duhch-woom-uhn ] show ipa. noun,plural Dutch·wom·en. a female native or inhabitant of the Netherlands; a woman of Dutch ancestry.
The Old English cousin to Dutch, thiod or theod, simply meant “people or nation.” (This also helps explain why Germany is called Deutschland in German.) Over time, English-speaking people used the word Dutch to describe people from both the Netherlands and Germany, and now just the Netherlands today.
The people who live in the Netherlands are not Netherlandish or Netherlandians, they're… Dutch. While it's not too difficult to figure that out, the difference in nomenclature can reveal some interesting historical insights. Throw in the name Holland, and there's even more complexity.
The Dutch people prefer you use “The Netherlands” as Holland is a Western region of the country and consists of two provinces: North Holland and South Holland [it used to be a single Province].
The Netherlands consists of 12 provinces but many people use “Holland” when talking about the Netherlands. The two provinces of Noord- and Zuid-Holland together are Holland. The 12 provinces together are the Netherlands. Holland is often used when all of the Netherlands is meant.
The Dutch government has officially decided to drop the moniker of Holland going forward, and will only refer to itself as the Netherlands. The Netherlands actually consists of 12 provinces, two of which combined make up Holland, so referring to the Netherlands as a whole as Holland is just wrong.
The Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (Kingdom of the Netherlands) is made up of 4 countries: Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands.
The people of Denmark are called Danes. Things that are from Denmark are called Danish. Dutch has nothing to do with Denmark.
Seeing as the country is called The Netherlands, and the people are called 'Nederlands' in their own language it might seem a little odd that in the English-language speaking world, we refer to people from this little European country as 'Dutch'.
In January 2020, the Netherlands officially dropped its support of the word Holland for the whole country, which included a logo redesign that changed "Holland" to "NL".
The government has started to rebrand the country as the Netherlands to enhance its image in the face of global competition. For decades, the Dutch government used “Holland” and “the Netherlands” interchangeably to describe the country known for its iconic canals, tulip fields and windmills.
While there may at times be some amount of antipathy towards outsiders, most Dutch people are actually extremely humble, welcoming, and friendly towards outsiders.
In the past, branding like Visit Holland put special emphasis on cities in North and South Holland, including not only Amsterdam but also Rotterdam and The Hague. By getting rid of the name Holland, the Board of Tourism hopes this will encourage tourists to go to less-visited places in the Netherlands.
Why is Dutch easier than German? Dutch and German share the same origin, but the further away a language has grown from that origin, the more it has changed and developed. German is an older language. One of the main factors affecting how difficult a language is, is language contact.
Holland and Dutch
In other languages, Holland is the formal name for the Netherlands.
A typical Dutch lunch is a broodje kaas or bread with cheese, also popular is to add apple syrup on top of that. Breakfast is eaten between 6 and 8 a.m. and lunch between 12 and 2 p.m..
You are not allowed to have dual nationality if you are Dutch and adopt another nationality. Then you will automatically lose your Dutch nationality. It does not matter whether you live in the Netherlands or abroad. This is provided by Dutch law.
Most of the earliest Amish arrivals came from the Swiss/Alsace region and brought their traditions and mother tongue with them. Generations of living apart from other communities have kept their heritage intact. Therefore the Amish can indeed be said to be primarily Swiss German people.
The Dutch didn't regard themselves as Germans any more since the 15th century, but they officially remained a part of Germany until 1648.
In 18th and 19th century English, the word "Dutch" was used to refer to the broad Germanic region, encompassing modern-day Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland, and so could quite appropriately refer to these settlers in Pennsylvania.
The term “Dutch baby” was coined by an American restaurateur whose use of “Dutch” was a corruption of the word “Deutsch” (“German” in German). “Baby” referred to the fact that the restaurant served miniature versions.