text: The correct term is The Netherlands or Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in dutch,...it refers to (as you will see below in greater detail) low lands.  I lived in Belgium and it was called Pays Bas which means flat land.  We call it Holland in the U.S. but that is actually incorrect as it only refers to a small portion of the nation.  It is known by flat or low lands because it is primarily a flat country which is why flooding is such a major issue for them.\n\nBelow is some info from wikipedia:\n\nHolland is commonly used as a synonym for the Netherlands as a whole, while actually it just refers to the central-western part of the country. This part consists of two of the twelve provinces of the country, namely North Holland and South Holland.\n\nHistorically Holland was the most powerful district of the Netherlands: the counts of Holland were also counts of Hainaut, Flanders and Zeeland for several periods in the 13th-15th century; during the period of the Dutch Republic the stadholder of the Holland was the most powerful politician in the Netherlands, and he often also was stadholder in other provinces; the cities in Holland were important trading cities, for instance six cities in Holland made up the Dutch East India Company. Still the two provinces, making up Holland, are very strong: they house 37.1 percent of the Dutch population.\n\nThe name 'Holland' is used in the Netherlands as well, especially in relation to soccer, where "Holland!" is shouted out loud by Dutch soccer fans. Furthermore do Dutch tour operators and tourist information centres use the term, because the name 'Holland' is better known worldwide.\n\nThe name Holland ultimately stems from "holt land" ("wooded land"). A popular, but incorrect, fake etymology holds that it is derived from hol land ("hollow land"), inspired by the low-lying geography of both the region.