iff Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 The next great national name debate It is the Netherlands for me but most people I know call it Holland Link to post Share on other sites
timewarp Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 I use both. If I talk about Holland I use Holland, if I talk about the entirety of the Netherlands I call it the Netherlands. 7 Link to post Share on other sites
Rynn Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 Calling the Netherlands Holland is like calling the US Carolina. We have two Hollands, south holland and north holland, and neither of those are the entirety of the Netherlands. I am from North Holland, but I don't think I've ever told anyone that. I just say Netherlands, or I say Amsterdam. Or I say future Atlantis and let people figure out what that means. They usually get what I'm saying pretty quickly. 4 Link to post Share on other sites
Phalena Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 I rarely need to talk about 'Holland' in particular so I use 'the Netherlands'. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Snao Cone Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 I don't know enough about the local geography to be confident on what part of the Netherlands is technically Holland. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 58 minutes ago, Rynn said: Or I say future Atlantis and let people figure out what that means. I had a sad laugh with this. Link to post Share on other sites
Acing It Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 10 minutes ago, Phoenix the II said: But... that's the important part, isn't it? Link to post Share on other sites
Rynn Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 31 minutes ago, Acing It said: But... that's the important part, isn't it? I can't deny that that made me smirk, but I also can't say I agree with it, because I'd like to stay on good terms with friends and family from other parts of the country haha 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Acing It Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 I quite like Maastricht myself, which is somewhere I've been to. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
everywhere and nowhere Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 Wow. There is always something to learn indeed. In English I always say/write "the Netherlands" because I consider it the most correct. However, in Polish "Holandia" is just way more widespread that "Niderlandy" even if it's technically incorrect... And most people probably don't even know it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
LogicalStroopwafel Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 I cringe every time a Dutch person says “Holland” in English, it’s just not correct. We were only called Holland when we were a French puppetstate during the napoleonic wars. it can even get confusing. After explaining where I and two friends lived, a Belgium guy asked if we lived in North Holland, while we just explained we lived in the North of the Netherlands, on the other side of the IJsselmeer from North Holland... 3 Link to post Share on other sites
iff Posted April 30, 2021 Author Share Posted April 30, 2021 1 minute ago, Nowhere Girl said: Wow. There is always something to learn indeed. In English I always say/write "the Netherlands" because I consider it the most correct. However, in Polish "Holandia" is just way more widespread that "Niderlandy" even if it's technically incorrect... And most people probably don't even know it. I find with people I know, that the use of "Holland" is popular among football fans Link to post Share on other sites
LogicalStroopwafel Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 2 minutes ago, iff said: I find with people I know, that the use of "Holland" is popular among football fans Holland scans better in a lot of things, so it is used in football songs and support for the national team a lot, which might explain that Link to post Share on other sites
Zagadka Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 I worked for a Scandinavian company for several years, so I got used to always using The Netherlands for the full country. Link to post Share on other sites
Rynn Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 39 minutes ago, iff said: I find with people I know, that the use of "Holland" is popular among football fans True. That's the word used in a bunch of those songs and chants. It's on the orange soccer merch as well. I suppose that's probably because 'Nederland' is kind of a long word to incorporate into a chant. 'Holland' is easier. 31 minutes ago, Zagadka said: I worked for a Scandinavian company for several years, so I got used to always using The Netherlands for the full country. This may not have been what you meant, but I've run into a surprising number of people who thought that the Netherlands was part of Scandinavia, or at least that it is fairly northern. For clarity, it is neither of those things. This one friend of mine went to go study in the US and told me about some of the misconceptions some Americans had about the Netherlands. She was asked whether we ice skate to work in the winter (no), whether we have polar bears (XD what), and whether we have internet (excuse you?). Dutch climate is pretty much the same as the British climate. We're at the same latitude and we're equally as rainy. We don't even have snow every year. Though for some reason this year we got a bit of snow in April, which is just wild. Climate change man, it does surprising things. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
a little annihilation Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 In my head it's Holland because I didn't know it was the Netherlands until somewhat recently (within the last 5ish years) but if I talk about it I prolly say the Netherlands to be more correct Link to post Share on other sites
Zagadka Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 5 minutes ago, Rynn said: This may not have been what you meant, but I've run into a surprising number of people who thought that the Netherlands was part of Scandinavia, or at least that it is fairly northern. For clarity, it is neither of those things. Oh, no. They just did a lot of work with The Netherlands over the course of it all. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
daveb Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 I like the town/city named Sneek; mainly because of the name. I have even been there (long ago). 1 Link to post Share on other sites
SpaceDustbin Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 9 hours ago, Diremastodon said: I cringe every time a Dutch person says “Holland” in English, it’s just not correct. Cringe away, because correct or not, there's only so many times you can say you're from the Netherlands and get a "what" in return that it's sometimes easier to just say Holland, especially if for them the official/most common way to refer to the Netherlands in their language is a variation of 'Holland'. So for me it varies a lot which name I use - depending on who I talk to. To avoid the Holland/Netherlands debate, I just call it Dutchland (which is surprisingly not often confused for Deutschland 😂) 9 hours ago, Zagadka said: I worked for a Scandinavian company for several years, so I got used to always using The Netherlands for the full country. Which country was the company connected to, because while in Sweden it was widespread to say "Nederländerna", and thus 'Netherlands', in Denmark 'Holland' is still frequently used, but they have over the past few years started to use "Nederlandene" more (though it is difficult for some to change that ) 1 Link to post Share on other sites
timewarp Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 The national anthem doesn't exactly help with the confusion either. "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe ben ik van Duitsen bloed. Den Vaderland getrouwe blijf ik tot in den dood." So William of Nassau (which is in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate) who emphasises how he is of German blood, swears allegiance to his home country. (I know I know, "Duits" means "Diets" which means "Nederlands" in this context and "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe" is Willem van Oranje, but it's not glaringly obvious, is it? 🤣) 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Zagadka Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 2 minutes ago, SpaceDustbin said: Which country was the company connected to, because while in Sweden it was widespread to say "Nederländerna", and thus 'Netherlands', in Denmark 'Holland' is still frequently used, but they have over the past few years started to use "Nederlandene" more (though it is difficult for some to change that ) Norway, specifically. For many years, almost everyone I knew was somewhere Scandinavian or mainland though. Link to post Share on other sites
timewarp Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 5 minutes ago, SpaceDustbin said: Which country was the company connected to, because while in Sweden it was widespread to say "Nederländerna", and thus 'Netherlands', in Denmark 'Holland' is still frequently used, but they have over the past few years started to use "Nederlandene" more (though it is difficult for some to change that ) To be fair "Holland" and "Nederlandene" sound quite similar in Danish. Link to post Share on other sites
Rynn Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 1 hour ago, SpaceDustbin said: I just call it Dutchland For some reason when I tell people 'I'm Dutch' instead of 'I'm from the netherlands', they often think I'm from Denmark. So I've stopped doing that. But really 'dutch' and 'danish' do not sound that similar so I don't understand why so many people confuse these two. My solution to people not knowing what 'the netherlands' is is following it up with 'I'm from Amsterdam'. I've never met anyone who didn't know Amsterdam. But this method does lead to people assuming you do a ton of drugs just because you're from Amsterdam, so it has its downsides. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Twy Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 I admit that I have a hard time remembering the difference. I know they are not the same, but a lot of times I use Holland as a synonym 😅 It has the same ring as other countries for me. Link to post Share on other sites
SpaceDustbin Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 10 hours ago, Rynn said: For some reason when I tell people 'I'm Dutch' instead of 'I'm from the netherlands', they often think I'm from Denmark. So I've stopped doing that. But really 'dutch' and 'danish' do not sound that similar so I don't understand why so many people confuse these two. My solution to people not knowing what 'the netherlands' is is following it up with 'I'm from Amsterdam'. I've never met anyone who didn't know Amsterdam. But this method does lead to people assuming you do a ton of drugs just because you're from Amsterdam, so it has its downsides. Well, they're both small countries bordering Germany . People either confuse Dutch/Danish (and me being Dutch and having lived in Denmark was a difficult concept to grasp for some 😛 ) or there's the Dutch/Deutsch thing. I never mention Amsterdam, but I do get the weed question on a regular basis, and no, I don't know where to buy it. Well, theoretically I do, but no. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 On 4/30/2021 at 7:49 PM, Phoenix the II said: Isn't that a rabbit? Also in Britain parts of Lincolnshire are known as Holland. Link to post Share on other sites
De Mij'lory Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 Usually say either Nederlands or Netherlands or some sort of weird d, t, eth mixup. Occasionally Holland but only if I'm talking about Holland, or referring to the football team, but that'll often also be 'the Dutch football team' aswell. We used to visit quite often when I was a kid so I learnt pretty early on the difference and it's stuck ever since. Holland for the entire country just seems wrong to me. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
cato Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 I used to call it Holland growing up, and, oddly, whenever I talk about the trip I took there twenty years ago as a child, I refer to it as Holland still. But outside of that context, I refer to it as the Netherlands. My company acquired a company in Amsterdam and have an office there as a result. Quite a few Dutch people transferred over to our NYC offices, and they all sat next to me back when going into an office was a thing. They always refer to it as the Netherlands, so 🤷♀️ Link to post Share on other sites
Forest Spirit Posted May 2, 2021 Share Posted May 2, 2021 23 hours ago, Rynn said: 'dutch' and 'danish' This confused me for forever, Danish - Denmark made sense but the Netherlands - Dutch was a bit of brain gymnastics, especially because it's called something like netherlandish in German, or hollandish [not actual English words I think, just approximating] I use the Netherlands (and its German equivalent) now as it's the whole country, but only after realising sometime in school that Holland is not the same thing😅 my geography skills are not good... Link to post Share on other sites
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