Why are people from holland called "the dutch"?

Answer 1

When they first came to America, people would often mix them up with Germans. The German word for Germany is Deutschland, and they speak Deutsch. When people asked them what they spoke they would tell them in their own language what is was called. Therefore many people thought the immigrants from The Netherlands were the same, as the languages to an untrained ear can be similar. Americans had a hard time saying the word Deutsch the way it should be pronounced, and they just shortened it. In fact, during WWII the Hollanders would ask people to pronounce certain words so that they themselves could tell the soldiers who were actually really Netherlandish and not just Germans who claimed to be nationals. It seems that even though they are similar, the Germans could not pronounce some of the words without an accent. This told the Dutch where they were actually from, and they often uncovered spies this way.

Answer 2

"The word Dutch comes from the old Germanic word *þiudiskaz, later transliterated by the Romans into Latin as theodisk, meaning 'of the people', 'vernacular' as opposed to official, i.e. Latin or later French. Theodisk in modern German has become Deutsch and in Dutch has become the two forms: Duits, meaning German, and Diets meaning Middle Dutch but no longer in general use (see the Diets article). Theodisk survives as tedesco ("German") in modern Italian."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language#Etymology_of_the_word_.22Dutch.22

Another explanation:

""Dutch" comes from "duutsch" a Middle Dutch term that referred to all Germanic peoples and the language(s)/dialects they spoke. In pre-17th century English the term "Dutch" was used in much the same way: to describe all the "Germanics", whether they be Flemish, Dutch, German, Austrian or Swiss. This was before that broad region was carved up into its present day configuration. The terms "High Dutch" and "Low Dutch" were further used to make a clearer distinction between what we now call "German" and "Dutch". After the country borders were drawn, all of Europe's major languages began to call the people of the Netherlands by their country name...all except English. I have no idea why that is."
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/posts/6050-8.htm

Holland is the name of two provinces in the Netherlands, North Holland and South Holland. It's not really the name for the whole country. The country's real name is Nederlanden (Netherlands), not Holland.

English speaking people used the word, Dutch, to mistakenly name the Dutch. The word, Dutch, is related to the German word, Deutsch, which means German. The Dutch call themselves Nederlanders.

Answer 3

Why do we translate names into something totally differnt from the original country or city?
Deuchland = Germany
Mira = Egypt
Why can't we just keep in Deuchland and pronounce it in English? Keep it Mira, and we pronoucne it in English?

Answer 4

I don't know, but I used to call Holland, Dutchland, when I was a kid, lol.

Answer 5

arent they called Hollish? Ducth is Dutchland.