How Did The Provinces Of The Netherlands Get Their Names? 

What province of The Netherlands are you watching this video in right now?

Don't forget Flevoland was self made/build!

Watching this as a Dutch person is so funny...... Propunciations🤣🤣

You shoudlve covered we made the province of flevoland.

Limburg: Lim = Lime Tree? I would say it's from Lime Stone. They used it a lot in their buildings and mined many tunnels there for lime.

When you have school tomorrow, but Name Explain makes a video about the Netherlands: *A small price to pay for salvation.*

I've been so conditioned by HistoryWithHilbert that I cant even think about The Netherlands without just hearing the national anthem 😆🇳🇱

Fun fact: Flevoland is mostly claimed land from the Ijsselmeer and was founded in the 80ies.

Erm, a thirty second search on Wikipedia tells me that Brabant comes from 'braec' which means marshy and 'bant' which means region. So nothing about broken lands...?

You've actually got a few things a bit wrong and other bits are left unexplained... Your picture of Frisia shows the region of West Friesland as part of that, but elsewhere it is part of North Holland. Maybe you could exain that. Groningen is not the official name of the province, though by far the most used. It is called Stad en Ommelanden, referring to the Low Saxon city of Groningen and the, originally, Frisian countryside around it. It's name in Frisian is Grinslân, which could translate as the Border Land, as well as the Land of Grin (Gruno). With Gelderland, you're probably right, but there was a duchy called Gelre for centuries, comprising Gelderland, parts of Overijssel and parts of northern Limburg, as well as Germany until the 80 Years War. Limburg and Noord Brabant are both part of an originally much larger province, which can still be found in Belgium. Limburg is split in half between Belgium and the Netherlands (much like Luxemburg between Belgium and Luxemburg). The old Duchy of Brabant comprises the current Dutch province of Noord Brabant and the Belgian provinces of Antwerpen, Vlaams Brabant and Waals Brabant. 's Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) and Brussel were joint capital and the city of Turnhout was the summer residence for the Dukes, as this lay between those and on the road to Antwerpen.

Great video and yes your pronunciation was partially off. Greetings from The Hague🇳🇱

As someone who has tried to learn some Dutch, Groningen is hard to say, you did fine. Also, I'm going to conjecture that Frisia's name origin isn't from curly hair but curly coastlines.

So, two days after the Netherlands wins the Eurovision Song Contest, you release a video about the Dutch provinces. Coincidence or perfectly timed?

I like how you pronounce the g-sound. A for effort!

Me, a dutch man seeing the title: ‘YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS ITS FINALY HAPPENING’

the frisian name also has roots from a very old tribe called the Frisii by Romans. Frisii wasa one of the two main tribes that lived in the dutch lands that weren't part of Rome.

I don't typically get actual "lol"s out of a Name Explaine episode, but your, "GELRE!", got a good chuckle out of me.

G E K O L O N I S E E R D

You probably didn't imagine you'd get to draw a dragon for this video

I am a proud Dutch-Indonesian American, and my father was raised in Utrecht!

One correction - Brabant was a unified medieval duchy hundreds of years before it was broken up, and used to be called "Bracbant", "brac" being old Dutch dialect word for "salt marsh" (like the English word "brack", for mild saltwater) , which took up much of the province's geography, and "bant" meaning union or province, similar to the German word "bund".

Watching this in Zuid-Holland, while i study in Utrecht, and half of the time live in Overijssel.

Ayyy I’m from Groningen and never knew about the name of our province thanks

I am Dutch and it is so damn funny to hear how people say it in english

Brabant actually comes from Braec Bant, the first part not referring to breaking, but to the word "broek", which used to refer to a swampy soggy terrain. With "bant" referring to a region, it basically means "soggy/swampy region".

Daniel: any country The cooler Daniel: The Netherlands

Fun fact! Groningen and Drenthe also have a second official language, like Friesland. Next to Dutch we speak a dialect of Low Saxon, which is spoken theougj North East Germany and the South of Denmark too!

The picture you used for Gelderland is from castle Cannenburgh in my home village of Vaassen.

Since Italy is my home country, I suggest you do a video about Italy's regions as well. Might be interesting as this one (I love the Netherlands, so I loved this too)!

west friesland is actually a part of northern region of north holland...we speak between dutch and fryslan :D

Thanks for the square picture of bergen op zoom for brabant

Can you do the same thing for Belgium?

is it just me, but name explain is extremely underrated

Wow my home town of geldern in a name explain a dream come true

funfact holt is still used in Overijssel and parts of drenthe

The netherlands has multiple ijssel rivers, the one you mentioned is the 'gelderse ijssel', the other ijssel is called the 'hollandsche ijssel'.

The Netherlands won Eurovision 2019 🇳🇱🏆

Although I was hoping for Iceland to win, I'm glad Netherlands won Eurovision. 44 years since the last time they won

The "Lim" in "Limburg" has multiple possible origins. One of these is a form of the Dutch word "leem", which can be translated to "loam" and is a type of soil present in the area. Another possibility is that it is derived from a word for "dragon" which is related to the modern Dutch word for a tapeworm (the "lint" in "lintworm"). I don't know of such origin of "Brabant", as I learnt the word "Bra" came from "braec", related to the modern words "braak" and "broek". Whereas the modern word "broek" is often associated with pants/trousers, it traditionally refers to a lower-lying area in the landscape that is usually (marshy) wetland. It's for example an area next to a river that overflows from time to time (or used to). An example is the Bossche broek directly south of the city of 's-Hertogenbosch/Den Bosch. It is related to the English word "brook".

You should do a name explain on the caribbean islands. They all have different origins yet all coexist together

Flevoland: "when the romans came to this land..." Hmmmmmmmmmmm

You should do the provinces or counties of Ireland , they can be quite interesting like one of the north most counties being called down

In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. He called it after the Dutch province Zeeland.

Don't forget the dutch region of Flanders ;)

Oohh man, I see The Netherlands in the thumbnail, I drop everything to watch Edit: pronounced is pretty good

Utrecht means "the last crossing (of the Rhine) Ultimum Trajectum Rhenum. But it could also mean the last place that goods can be swithched for river boats onto sea boats (going to Brittain).

The Groningen province is not named after that person, the city is. The city conquered the Frisian surroundings and it subsequently became Groningen in its current shape.

The part about West Frisian is very confusing, because in Dutch it's just called Fries. You also have West-Fries (literal translation: West Frisian), but West-Fries is spoken in West-Friesland, which lies in Noord-Holland. Where Fries is considered a language, West-Fries is considered a dialect. Frisian is only called West-Frisian outside of the Netherlands to distinguish it from German Frisian language/dialect apparently. Which makes West-Fries (the dialect) West West Frisian?

Woods and Forests in Holland. That sounds so weird to meright now because there is barely anything left.

Correction: 'Gelderland' comes from Gelre, or the earlier Gellere (997), meaning elevated settlement. Which makes sense seeing much of the province is quite hilly contrary to the flat & low surroundings. The story of the dragon is, although amusing, utter nonsense.

The name Brabant comes from braecbant which means something like soggy region. The reason why there is a Noth-Brabant is because Belgium used to be part of The kingdom of the Netherlands, after their independence some provinces were split in two. You have a Brabant (North-Brabant) in The Netherlands and a Brabant (Flemish-Brabant) in Belgium. You also have a Limburg in both The Netherlands and in Belgium. This province was split in two also.

Drenthe is actually derived from the tribe that inhabited it i believe. It was called Thrihanti just like the western half of the province Overijssel, Twente, was inhabited by the tribe called Tvihanti.

Actually, Doith Brabant is still a province of Belgium and the name has nothing to do with the supposed meaning "broken land". Brabant was one of the provinces of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. When the south split from the Republic (or Kingdom at that time), forming Belgium, this newly created country had the southern half of Brabant (South Brabant) as the most northern province and the Netherlands were left with the northern part of Brabant (North Brabant) as the most southern province. Don't even try arguing with me about this: I am Dutch and in the Netherlands, this topic is adressed extensively in both geography and history class.

Can you do the origins of terms such as dawg, bruv, guvna, g/g-unit, and dude?

That drawing of the windmill in the beginning was so cute!

Watching from the Belgian province of Antwerp (kind of the Middle Brabant) ;)

We, Hungarians call Netherlands Wait for it.... Hollandia Yep,we dont care

I live in Brooklyn NY and there's a street where one of the major nyc trains (d train) goes over called New Utrecht ave, now I know where that name comes from

1:32 To make it more complex: 'West Frisian' is what we call a part of North Holland (the towns of Schagen, Alkmaar, etc). We call the Frisians from Friesland just Frisians, not West Frisians, otherwise it is too confusing.

Judging your pronunciation sources: You're kind of catching on to IPA. (Kind of.) "Utrecht" got too English-y with the "chr" sound in there (aside from your source of it only having the Dutch IPA pronunciation.) I do appreciate your efforts to try and learn IPA, though. Even if you're not always consulting it.

Please do a video on Belgium/Belgian provinces!

No no no!!!! Its not west frysian That is a dialect that people speak in west Friesland , Which is a district in noord Holland! People in Friesland speak Frisian!

As a Dutchman, I have to say three things: 1) Thank you! You taught me something new about my own country, something I wondered quite a lot too. 2) Flevoland isn't a historic name. It only became a province in 1986, because it only had been created slowly by taking back land from the Zuiderzee between 1918 en 1986, the name itself stems from the 1950s only! 3) You really need to work on your non English pronunciation. Groningen was a good try though ♡ (and god you murdered Utrecht).

Why does "when the romans arrived in flevoland" sound so strange for a province that's only about sixty years old...

Do you perhaps know the origin of the middle finger salute? I know that it isn't a name, but I was curious if it was derived from the two finger taunt used by English archers during the hundred's year war.

Hey that's my hometown at 2:39! Your pronunciation of Overijssel is much harder than it needs to be though lol, "over" is pretty much pronounced the same as in English.

West Frisian is actually a dialect found in a region of North Holland. In Friesland, it's good old fashioned Frisian

awww cute!! a country smaller than the size of one province has its own provinces!

Very funny! But not always correct 😂 west Friesland is actually in North Holland. Brabant is not the southernmost province, that's actually Limburg, which name is derived from a duchy in present day Belgium called limbourg, but which is outside of the current Belgium and Dutch provinces that go by that name. (and I saw some reactions about lime being the origin for the lim in limburg, but that not the case, in the region where limbourg is located there is no limestone. Lim I thought to mean lint, snake or dragon and bourg is a fortification as indicated in the video. Gelderland is called that way because it was part of the land of gelre. Noth and South Holland was one province originally, but as they got too powerful in comparison with the other provinces, holland was split up. The etymology for Holland does indicate holtlant, but this originally doesn't seem to be indicating the current provinces of Holland as at the time when this name was used, these areas were mostly swamps. It seems that the forests were to be foungld more to the east and south. Brabant is of course not broken land, the original Brabant was only split up very recently. The name for flevoland, although chosen very recently, does come as indicated in the video from the Roman name for the zuiderzee (which is to the south of the North sea and currently named ijsselmeer) flevo lacus.

Friesland, at it’s high point, stretched from the south of Denmark to the north of France. It’s capitol was Dorestad (near Wijk bij Duurstede in nowadays Utrecht). It was never conquered by the Romans and in the Middle Ages held a Status Aparte in the Holy Roman Empire, that’s why there’s a Frisian church in Vatican City. It’s demise came in the 11th century, only then were the provinces of Holland formed. The Frisians also founded Amsterdam. So it was a little bigger than what was shown on the map here.

North and South Blabant

On the etymology is unclear but lemons have probably nothing to do with it since most castles called Limburg were founded by the Franks in the 9-10th c. and lemon is a Persian word that entered Europe much later. There are two possibilities. Most Limburg castles are founded on places that have an older Celtic settlement and *linda means creek in Gaulic which would refer to a creek or small river that also flows near most Limburgs. The other is the Germanic Lind which means dragon. Limburg in Hesse is known for having a dragon legend and a church of St. George.

Love the video The pronunciation was very interesting as well.

The comments in a nutshell: - Your pronunciation is good/bad! (I think you somehow sound a bit German) - Why didn't you say we *MADE* Flevoland! - How did the Romans name a place that got its name in 1986? - We don't really recognize Drenthe (everyone hates them for some reason I forgot) - Hilbert is lurking in the shadows *Dutch anthem starts playing* - What about Belgium? - *G E K O L O N I S E E R D* - Oh hey, I live in that town

Flevoland is about 80 years old making it the youngest province Oh and the name had something with Flave a latin word meaning river or watery place cuz its build in a lake.

Fun fact: in Hungarian, "Hollandia" is the official name of The Netherlands

Do a video about the provinces of Belgium

2:43 My hometown Deventer

Is this a low-key congratulatory video for the Netherlands after they won Eurovision, or just mere coincidence?

I'm a simple Dutchman I see my country I click Greetings from Gelderland

Love how the pic you used for Overijssel is my hometown

West frisian is a dialect spoken in a part of north holland, frisian is the actual language they speak in Friesland

Great Video! Went to the Netherlands a couple months ago, and I enjoyed my time there. Rotterdam was Awesome!

Zeeland might sound logical as the land in the sea (zee in Dutch) because it’s (former) islands but there’s something else to it. The people in Zeeland are called Zeeuw and the name could be derived from Zeeuw-land. Zeeuw is from Sueve a tribe that came to the region after the collapse of the Roman empire from the region that is now called Baden-Wuerttemberg. People there are still called Schwaben (etymologically related to Sueve) , the same tribe that ended up as Suebes on the Iberian peninsula.

Hey uhm... Btw if the n and the g are standing next to eacother it becomes a letter and has a different pronunciation

Gelderland is named after the "Hertog van Gelre",city name "Geldern".... nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertogdom_Gelre "Geldern" is also a region in Germany. nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geldern

Do this about germany too please and England

Isn't Groningen names after the city of Groningen or is the city of groningen named after that gruno guy??

Limburg is a province that split in half but it kept the name

So you’re not going to mention that Flevoland was non existent until the 20th century? We actually made the entire province like the people in dubai do now... that would be interesting to tell!

I have already lived in Gelderland, Groningen and now Noord-Holland

Great video, greetings from Limburg!

Question: Why is Croatia called Hrvatska in Serbo-Croatian?

can you make one for the german states? :]

One correction on your video: west frisian is actually not spoken in frisia, its spoken in the middle of north holland in the cultural region of west frisia. In frisia they just speak normal frisian/middle frisian

Please do a lovely vidéo on our dear belgian provinces too unless you did it already. Fine explanations.

4 provinces of Ireland. I’m from Ulster

In Friesland they have sheep and guinea pigs with really curly hair/fur. Never knew that their might be a name connection until this video though

I am currently watching in Utrecht, by the way, where are the Dutch Antillies?

There is a place called Rectum too, isn't there?