Holland vs The Netherlands – What Is the Country Called?

When I first arrived in The Netherlands I knew very little about the country. I didn’t know the language, I didn’t know the traditions and after a few months I discovered I didn’t even know the name. For a long time I thought this country was called Holland (and yes, I named this blog before I found out). But it’s not called Holland. It’s called The Netherlands. If you look on a world map that is the name you will see. So why is it sometimes called Holland? Well… that’s both simple and not so simple.

Holland vs The Netherlands and The Twelve Provinces

The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces. Holland is the name given to the combination of the two western most provinces, separately known as Zuid-Holland and Noord-Holland (South and North Holland).

Holland vs The Netherlands Provinces

The other provinces are called Zeeland, North Brabant, Limburg, Utrecht, Gelderland, Flevoland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen… in case you were wondering.

But why Holland?

Despite this, for reasons that are not entirely clear, the country sometimes gets called Holland as a whole. It’s possible that it has something to do with three of the country’s main cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag) being within the two provinces in question. It does not help that non-Dutch people are probably easily confused on matters of Dutch geography.

The good thing is the Dutch themselves are very clear on the name of their country. Just ask them. It is The Netherlands without a shadow of a doubt. They’ll have none of this Holland nonsense thank you very much… Unless…

Hup Holland Hup

The rules about the countries name go completely out the window during any kind of international sporting event. It does not matter if it is the World Cup, the European Cup, the Olympics or even a cake baking competition. The same Dutch person that was just sternly telling you the name of their country is The Netherlands will suddenly be shouting “Hup Holland. Hup” with the rest of the country (all twelve provinces). It loosely translates to “Come on Holland. Come on.”

I guess it shorter and easier to shout than the alternative. As a Dutch person recently said to me; try shouting “The Netherlands, The Netherlands” at the next international sporting event you go to. It just doesn’t work. It would be even worse if you tried to use the official country name as it appears in Dutch passports; “Hup, Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, Hup.”

Another possible explanation I received was, “Minder lettergrepen. We zijn zuinige mensen.” This basically translates to, “Less syllables. We are economical people.”

In the end it is probably a combination of the name Holland being more marketable than The Netherlands, easier to fit on a t-shirt and less likely to get mixed up with Neverland.

If you don’t believe me on that last one; during my first few weeks in the country I received a letter from an old college friend. It was addressed to me in The Neverlands. Amazingly it still arrived. It make me question where I was actually living for a short while.

What do you think of Holland vs The Netherlands? What name do you prefer to use?

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

9 Responses

  1. Rose says:

    They are, I didn’t know that. LOL But then I was never good in Geography.

  2. nicole says:

    I think I get the difference between the UK and England, but what confuses me is the difference between being British and being English. One and the same? In the states one is American, not, er, Statian etc. Ah, terminology.

    Lovely blog you have here!

  3. Jorg says:

    “but luckily for me Holland is used to refer to the entire country in most cases now”

    Maybe this is the case in the two certain western provinces, but not in the other ones…

  4. Valeria says:

    Hi!
    I’m also going to move to the Netherlands next year (for studyind/working). Your blog was very interesting and useful for me.
    Dank je wel!!:)
    Waiting for the new stories about Holland.

  5. William Eby says:

    I’ve been to the Netherlands, and 9 of the 12 provinces (Zeeland, Flevomand, and Limburg are the missing ones). In the US, I’ve been to Holland (Michigan), and Nederland (Colorado). There is a Nederland, Texas, but I have not been there (closest I’ve been is Houston).

  6. Pangolin says:

    It’s no less confusing than England/Britain/the UK. Actually, wait, it’s totally less confusing.

  7. Lou says:

    I guess the difference between being British vs English might be to do with the heritage. For example someone born in England but of mixed heritage is rather identified as British, opposed to someone born in England of white English heritage is rather identified as English? Hope it makes sense. :)

    With the Holland vs The Netherlands I read about the relevance played by the two provinces of Holland Noord,Zoud in winning the war against German invasion, therefore for the rest of the netherlanders there’s still pride the country being called Holland.

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