The official change took place in 2019, as part of a campaign by the Dutch government to spread the country’s correct name
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December 5
2025
– 08:43
(Updated at 8:53 a.m.)
summary
The Netherlands is officially called the Netherlands due to its historical and geographical composition of 12 provinces, and as of 2019 the government has promoted the use of the name “Netherlands” in official contexts.
The draw to determine the groups for the 2026 World Cup will be held on Friday, the fifth of this month, at two in the afternoon. Among the participants, one choice usually arouses curiosity: Why is the Netherlands, as many Brazilians know it, called the Netherlands? In order to understand this, we have to go back to the history of this country.
Officially, the country we know as the Netherlands is called the Netherlands. The confusion between the two names began after French forces invaded the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1795. For a moment, the region was called the Batavian Republic, and Holland was one of its provinces. But in 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte appointed his brother Louis king, turning the country into a kingdom – the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
After Napoleon’s defeat, the kingdom remained as such, but was called the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands became a province again. What makes the name Netherlands continue to spread, especially among foreigners, is the cultural dominance that the region maintained over the kingdom at that time, which made it common to refer to the Netherlands when referring to the entire country.
The Netherlands is a single country consisting of 10 other provinces in addition to the Netherlands (divided into South Holland and North Holland). They are: Zealand, North Brabant, Limburg, Utrecht, Gelderis, Flevoland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Friesland, Groningen.
Recently, a report from The Guardian 2019 highlighted the Dutch government’s initiative to spread the Netherlands’ name globally. From that year onwards, the football team began to be called exclusively Netherlands in any official context. The same thing happened with sports teams during the Olympics and the like.
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