For the most part, the English name for a country is similar to the English name for the people who live there. The French live in France, Indonesians live in Indonesia, Rwandans live in Rwanda and so on. That’s not always the case, however. 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.
Here, we’ll dive into a little history behind each of these terms and figure out where they came from.
The Netherlands
The meaning of “Netherlands” isn’t too hard to guess. “Nether” means “low” and “lands” means “countries” (or, more simply, “lands”). The modern Dutch equivalent is Nederland, which means the same thing.
The name has been around for a long time, but the region was not always officially called that. The region that currently encompasses both the Netherlands and Belgium — sometimes called the Low Countries — has changed hands many times. One common thread in its naming, though, is that it often refers to the fact that the land is lower than the surrounding landmass. Back when it was a Roman territory in the first century CE, the area was called Germania Inferior (to contrast with the section of Germany called Germania Superior). When the Kingdom of Germany took over the area in the 10th century, it became Lower Lorraine. It wasn’t until the 15th century that Nederlandsch appears in the historical record, and at that point it referred to the language spoken by the people in the area. It also existed alongside the more common term for the people in the area, Duytsch (more on that below).
It took a few hundred more years for Nederlandsch to take hold as the official name for the region. In the 19th century, Belgium split off (taking the name Belgica from an old Latin name for the Low Countries), and the name Nederlandsch slowly started taking over from the other common name, Nederduytsch. Since then, it’s become the country’s moniker.
Dutch
The word Dutch comes from a Proto-Germanic word meaning “of the people.” It shares a root with the German word Deutsch, which has led to some confusing names. The name Germans call Germany, for example, is Deutschland and the people there Deutsch. Dutch and German are related, after all, both being Germanic languages. As mentioned in the last section, the Netherlands for a time was calledNederduytsch, meaning “of the lower people.”
The use of Dutch to refer to the people of the Netherlands doesn’t occur in most languages, however. English is the only language that calls the language spoken in the Netherlands “Dutch.” The Dutch themselves called their language Nederlands, and most other languages have some variation on that theme.
English has thrown around the word Dutch and its various spellings for hundreds of years. One lasting legacy of the willy nilly usage is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is the name for a branch of the German language that developed in North America. As far as the naming conventions involving the Netherlands goes, English is the odd one out.
Holland
The use of Holland to refer to the entirety of the Netherlands is also a quirk of English (though it’s done by some non-English speakers as well). 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.
There was one time that Holland was the name of the whole country: 1806 to 1810. That’s when Napoleon Bonaparte installed his brother as the puppet ruler of the country in an attempt to keep control of it. That’s likely not the reason why modern-day people call the country Holland, however. Instead, it’s probably that Holland was a largely autonomous region through much of its history, and so Holland got conflated with the country as a whole. At the same time, Holland — with its idyllic pastures and towering windmills — has become a cultural shorthand for the entire country in the modern world. Still, you should probably just call the Netherlands by its rightful name to avoid any problems.
Photo credit: Rentola.com
FAQs
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.
Why are Netherlands people called Dutch? ›
The word Dutch comes from a Proto-Germanic word meaning “of the people.” It shares a root with the German word Deutsch, which has led to some confusing names. The name Germans call Germany, for example, is Deutschland and the people there Deutsch. Dutch and German are related, after all, both being Germanic languages.
What do you call someone from the Netherlands in Dutch? ›
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'.
Why is Holland now called the Netherlands? ›
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.
What is the nationality of a person from the Netherlands? ›
The Netherlands is primarily home to the Nederlander people, or as we call them, Dutch people. As an ethnic group, Dutch people make up roughly 79–80% of the total population, so they're a pretty dominant majority.
How did Going Dutch get its name? ›
To 'go Dutch' is a a contraction of 'In the Dutch fashion', meaning, 'To pay ones share'. Which seems to have been a natural response of traders from a small nation state being patronised by those of a larger neighbour.
What language do Dutch speak? ›
The Netherlands has 16 million inhabitants and Dutch is the only official language of the country. Frisian, spoken in the Northern province of Fryslân, has been granted local offical language status too. Frisian is very close to English.
Are Holland and Dutch the same thing? ›
Are Dutch people from Holland or the Netherlands? Because Holland isn't the name of the country, Dutch people are from the Netherlands. However, it's possible that you meet a Dutchie who is from Holland, but in this case, it would just mean that they're from either the province of North or South Holland.
What is a Dutch woman called? ›
Dutchwoman (plural Dutchwomen) A Dutch woman; a woman from the Netherlands. synonym ▲ Synonym: vrouw. A woman of Dutch descent.
Is it Dutch or Netherlands nationality? ›
It isn't common and "Dutch" is the preferred term. But if this gets you out of having to say "I'm Dutch, but Dutch from the Netherlands, not Deutch" hundreds of times it is allowed. You are just naming the country to which you are a citizen, not talking about national identity.
The Netherlands has had steady natural gas resources since 1959, when a wellspring was discovered. Currently the Netherlands accounts for more than 25% of all natural gas reserves in the European Union. Over the following decades, the sale of natural gas generated a significant rise in revenue for the Netherlands.
What is the most common last name in the Netherlands? ›
One of the most common Dutch surnames is “de Jong", which is considered a patronymic name. Other common Dutch surnames are “Jansen” (derived from Jan's son) and “de Vries” (meaning “the freeze," referring to where a person came from, i.e. a toponym).
Which country belongs to Dutch? ›
Dutch is used as the adjective for the Netherlands, as well as the demonym. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people", akin to Old Dutch Dietsch or Old English þeodisc, meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people".
What religion is in the Netherlands? ›
More than half (55 percent) of Dutch people aged 15 years and over are not religious. In 2020, 20 percent of the Dutch population belonged to the Catholic Church, 14 percent were Protestant, 5 percent Muslim and 5 percent belonged to another religious group.
Does a child born in the Netherlands get citizenship? ›
There are 3 ways to become a Dutch citizen: Automatically at birth (if one or both of your parents holds Dutch citizenship when you are born), through adoption or through acknowledgement of parentage.
What is the main ethnicity in the Netherlands? ›
Dutch 75.4%, EU (excluding Dutch) 6.4%, Turkish 2.4%, Moroccan 2.4%, Surinamese 2.1%, Indonesian 2%, other 9.3% (2021 est.)
Is it Holland or Dutch or the Netherlands? ›
Are Dutch people from Holland or the Netherlands? Because Holland isn't the name of the country, Dutch people are from the Netherlands. However, it's possible that you meet a Dutchie who is from Holland, but in this case, it would just mean that they're from either the province of North or South Holland.
What does "Dutch" mean? ›
Dutch means relating to or belonging to the Netherlands, or to its people, language, or culture.
Is the Netherlands Dutch or German? ›
In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as a minority language in Germany and northern France's French Flanders.
What's the difference between Dutch and Flemish? ›
The Dutch language spoken in the Netherlands has more of an English influence, whilst the language in the Flander region, the Flemish speaking region of Belgium, has a stronger French manifestation. Dutch people also often mention that the Flemish dialect sounds softer.
