A timeless question from George Costanza made the rounds last week when the United States played…somebody…in soccer. Whom did they play? Well, beats me (and George).
The questions of how the hell Holland came to be known as the Netherlands and why the hell its people came to be known as the Dutch are, some would say, the greatest global questions coming out of Europe right now. Those people would be wrong, of course, there have to be at least two or three more important questions coming out of Europe right now, but some would say it. We rank them fourth, and you wouldn’t believe what we have as number three (ok fine since you asked number three is what would happen if Boris Johnson went streaking through Piccadilly Circus on New Year’s Eve).
So, we’re going to answer it. Or at least we’re going to try to answer it. Let’s check if Holland has a Wikipedia page.
*typing noises*
*click*
A-HA!
From Wikipedia:
Holland is a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the counts of Holland. By the 17th century, the province of Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the newly independent Dutch Republic.
The area of the former County of Holland roughly coincides with the two current Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland into which it was divided, and which together include the Netherlands’ three largest cities: the capital city (Amsterdam), the home of Europe’s largest port (Rotterdam), and the seat of government (The Hague).
…
The name Holland has also frequently been used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. This casual usage is commonly accepted in other countries, and is even employed by many Dutch themselves. However, some in the Netherlands (particularly those from regions outside Holland or the west) find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term for the whole country. 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”.
I’m not looking up the logo (ok fine here it is), but we seem to have our answer. Holland is a region in the Netherlands, and it’s the most populous region, and the most powerful region, and historically it was its own thing, so its name has sometimes bled out and just been used to cover the whole country. As for our other answer…the “Dutch Republic” piece was a good hint.
According to Babbel, “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.” And according to Wikipedia again, “Dutch” is just the word we English-speakers use to identify people from/in the Netherlands and their language. So, Dutch isn’t specific to Holland. It’s universal across the Netherlands. And yes, if you’re wondering, Netherlands means low-lying lands. Which is why that kid had to put his finger in the wall.
So, there we are. We now all thoroughly understand the Netherlands. And the Dutch. Except for the orange thing. Nobody knows where the orange thing came from. It’s unknowable.
it’s pretty well known that the orange thing came from student revolutions in the early 19th century.