From where comes the name Holland for The Netherlands?

mjlsr1958

From the Old Dutch "holt lant", meaning wood land, describing the district around Dordrecht, the nucleus of Holland. Technically, just one province of the Netherlands, but extended to the whole nation. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=holland&searchmode=none [Text added -- Zb] Jul 05 08, 3:04 PM

satguru

According to a travel guide we used in the 70s Netherlands was the collective term for Belgium and Holland, meaning 'The lowlands'. This has not been used a lot since but was clearly an official definition once as used by a very reputable company. Jul 05 08, 6:51 PM

zbeckabee

Holland (part of the Netherlands; a name often incorrectly used to refer to the country as a whole): Germanic holt-land ("wooded land") (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow [i.e. marsh] land"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_name_etymologies#N Jul 05 08, 7:03 PM

author

This map shows the position of the actual Holland in the west of the Netherlands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Holland_position.svg The name Holland first appeared in sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used for the name of the entire county. By this time the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as "Hollanders". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland Jul 05 08, 8:41 PM