There’s an exonym “corridor” of countries that call the Netherlands “Holland”, spreading all the way from from Poland to Turkey

Posted by imusingreddityay

40 Comments

  1. LupusDeusMagnus on

    That’s false, most of those countries call the country their language version of Holland unofficially and officially call it the Netherlands.

  2. Do these countries literally have no translation for “Netherlands”?

    I ask this because in my language, Italian, saying “Paesi Bassi” instead of simply “Olanda” is much weirder than saying “Netherlands” instead of “Holland”.

  3. Países Bajos is the official name but everyone calls it Holanda excepts in official situations

  4. ShaftesburyAvenue on

    Holland and the Netherlands are often used interchangeably in the UK. Particularly when refering to the football team.

    Obviously I know the difference, but it doesn’t stop people doing it.

  5. Isernogwattesnacken on

    And both are fine, don’t let some provincials on Reddit tell you otherwise.

  6. Holland = two provinces (north and south, on the west near the coast)

    Netherlands = the whole country, including Holland.

  7. In Spanish saying Países Bajos is something relatively new. Most people still say Holanda

  8. In Finnish its colloquially called Holland, but officially the country is called the Netherlands.

    The Dutch language is officially called “hollannin kieli” in Finnish, though.

  9. im sure romania wont say “cities from below” for the netherlands. but i did hear ‘hollanda’ in romania…

  10. Radiant_Honeydew1080 on

    Seems wrong, people in Russia call it both the Netherlands and Holland. Both are right in regular speech, though in official or diplomatic speech only “the Netherlands” or Kingdom of the Netherlands” are appropriate.

  11. LoyalteeMeOblige on

    Most Spanish people say “Holanda”, sorry, I’m a Spanish speaker and we need to force ourselves to say “Países Bajos” even if we live here. It goes against a custom going on for years.

  12. Romania only uses “Tarile de Jos” (Basically the same as the french Pays-Bas) in official documents. In regular conversations it’s always “Olanda”.

  13. Fake news

    Most Eastern Europe and Russia calls is “Gallandia” aka hollandia aka holland

    Map is fake

  14. Same for russian. Many people simply say Голландия, and not Нидерланды. 🤷‍♂️

  15. GalacticSettler on

    In Polish the official name is “Królestwo Niderlandów”, ie Kingdom of the Netherlands.

  16. in Poland both names are officially “allowed” – in official context it’s “Kingdom of Netherlands” but it’s not considered a mistake to say “Holland”

  17. Different_Career_315 on

    Well, in Poland it is called “Holandia,” but “Niderlandy” is also correct (and perhaps even more so). However, in my opinion it’s a terrible calque, and we should use something like “Niskie Kraje.” It would sound much cooler.

  18. drgoogoblinesq on

    In elementary school here in the Capital Region of NY (mid 90s), we were taught it was Holland, and it was a magical land with windmills and houses on stilts… so later when we learned about it as the Netherlands I was very confused.

  19. In Turkish in Ottoman times they used to call it Nederland but then change it back to Hollanda

  20. ForeverAfraid7703 on

    Interesting, I learned the Russian for Netherlands as Голландия (Gollandia)

  21. AgonizingFatigue on

    It’s so annoying when people say Holland instead of Netherlands here in the UK. It’s like saying England when referring to the entire UK.

  22. lousy-site-3456 on

    To sum up: Everyone calls it Holland. The only question then is: does the blue corridor also call it the Lowlands? 

  23. And thus Portugal is once again Eastern Europe, although this time it applies only to the northern part

  24. To be honest, in colloquial italian you will always hear “Olanda”, almost never “Paesi Bassi”.

    Yes, of course, the nation is officialy aknowledged as “Paesi Bassi”… but, I mean, it’s not a thing you actually say outloud in a normal conversation. You’d look reharsed.