A lot of people believe Holland and the Netherlands were both names for a European country famous for cheese, tulips, and wooden clogs. But this is incorrect. Even the Dutch government recently removed “Holland” from its tourism campaigns and all official government communications.
Holland and the Netherlands are two different things. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815 (and Belgium seceded from it in 1830). Of the 12 provinces that make up the Netherlands, Noord (North) Holland and Zuid (South) Holland are just two of them.
We can blame bad branding for the confusion. The Netherlands’ largest city, Amsterdam, is located in Noord Holland. Historically, that region has been the largest contributor to the nation’s wealth, so it became common practice to use the name as a synonym for the entire country. But since most of the country’s 20 million tourists only stop in Amsterdam, the Netherlands is dropping the nickname officially in order to encourage travelers to explore outside of the Holland region and make its national branding more consistent to people from around the globe. In addition, the country’s tourism board is also reinventing its logo. Previously an orange tulip next to the word “Holland,” the new logo features a tulip within the letters “NL.”
But you are probably also wondering why the people of the Netherlands are referred to as “Dutch”. According to Dictionary.com, the Old English word for Dutch is thiod or theod, which translates to “people” or “nation.” Back then, this term was used to refer to people from both the Netherlands and Germany (which is why Germany is “Deutschland” in German). The term stuck, even though the country took on the name Netherlands when it became an independent nation in the 19th century.
Sven Franssen