Why is it called The Netherlands AND Holland, but they're called Dutch?

I can't think of any genuine examples (in English) where a country's nationality is completely different sounding to the country name. I live in Australia, therefore I am Australian. People in France, are French. Germany, Germans. Etcetera, etcetera, you get the drift.

So I got to wondering why the Dutch don't live in Dutchland, or alternatively, call themselves Hollanders or Netherlanders.

To Wikipedia I said! (To myself)

After much reading, re-reading, scrolling, link clicking, reading slowly out loud and Googling, I have managed to condense all I found into a simple explanation.

I make no bones about it being a very rudimentary, and most likely naive abridgement, but hey; it's an answer and I hope it satisfies your curiosity.The curiosity you probably didn't even know you had until you stumbled on this blog post.

First, the history and geography.

When Europe was made up of regions rather than the geographically and politically defined countries we have today, the Netherlands was used to describe the low lands of Europe. Eventually most of the area officially became the Netherlands (yes the punctuation of 'the' is correct). When grouped with the dependent regions of the Netherlands (currently the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Netherlands Antilles) they are collectively called the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Holland is a region of the Netherlands that is commonly (altho wrongly, even by the Dutch, out of convenience when speaking English), used to describe the Netherlands as a whole. Historically, the region of Holland politically dominated the Netherlands (the French took control of Holland and referred to all of the Netherlands as the Kingdom of Holland) which may account for its widespread use for the entire mainland Netherlands. In much the same way as the United Kingdom is often, incorrectly, called England.

Next, some more etymology.

The word Dutch is an English one and derives from one of the languages spoken in the region - Diets. It was used to describe the "common" people of the low lands and their languages, as the aristocracy and the upper class spoke latin. People in the Netherlands only use the term 'Dutch' when speaking English, and do so because it's the most easily recognised word in English to refer to the people of the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands itself, they call the country the Nederland, themselves Nederlanders and the language Nederlands. Those who live in the region of Holland, may also refer to themselves as Hollanders.

And another trivial fact you didn't even know you wanted to know - the colour orange is a symbol of the Netherlands because it represents the political movement known as Orangism: monarchist support for the Prince of Orange against the French backed Napoleonic government in the Netherlands.

By Monique Kowalczyk

So what do you want to know?
MoniqueWillKnow@gmail.com

*Disclaimer*
Please don't go basing your PhD Thesis on anything I write here.
The information I provide comes with no guarantee of accuracy, and I'm just as likely to provide the most entertaining answer, as I am the factually correct answer.