Why so many names for the same country: Holland, The Netherlands, The Hague???

Question

Why so many names for the same country: Holland, The Netherlands, The Hague???

Answer 1

As fare as I know "The Hague" has always referred to a city, not the entire country. 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. Today, Holland only refers to a portion of The Netherlands.

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If you go around the world, people still refer to the UK as England, even though that hasn't been accurate for hundreds of years. Similarly in Mexico you are often suprised to find people say they are going to Mexico. Domestically, Mexico refers to the state of Mexico and Mexico city where the word originated.

Answer 2

These are not all names for the same country

The Hague is the English for Den Haag.  Den Haag is a city in the Netherlands where the government resides.

The Netherlands is the English for Nederland which is the name of the country, although "Holland" is commonly used abroad, especially with regard to sports e.g. in football

Holland is techinically only the name for two of the twelves provinces within the Netherlands, namely Noord Holland & Zuid Holland (North Holland and South Holland).  Amsterdam (the capital) is located in Noord Holland, and Den Haag in Zuid Holland

This is the simple version :0)  If you want to read more then it is all contained within Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands

Answer 3

The Hague is the English name for the former capitol city of Holland, Den Haag. It's not the name of the country.

Holland and the Netherlands are the only two names for the country.

Answer 4

holland is a region (north and south) w/in the netherlands. the hague is a city.

Answer 5

The Hague is a city, so we can rule that one out. The Netherlands is the English form of the official name of the country. Holland is often used because it's traditional, that's all, that name coming from history. I won't get into the history of the names, you can check that on Wikipedia.