Wait until you find out that Kanada isn't called Kanada in Kanada.
this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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Wait'll you hear about Japan.
The wiki on Names of Japan is a rollercoaster.
Same goes for Korea (since it was defined by the reigning Kingdom)
Or China!
In the Netherlands, we don't call out country The Netherlands.
We call it: "Nederland". Completely different.
But the Americans seem to think you are Duits.
Same with Denmark = Danmark
I know. It's a shocking difference. We call you guys Holland for some reason, though and every non-european I've ever met keeps thinking we are the same country. I was asked to say something in Dutch once and just looked blankly at the person.
and Japan is is not Japan in Japan.
NaNi-ppon?
Deutschland, sounds like what we should call Netherlands
Until you then find out that the Netherlands is actually called "Nederland" in the Netherlands. And the reason they'd called "Dutch" in America is due to an archaic mix-up between the two nationalities.
It’s not really a mix-up. More a continuation of an old name for the language spoken in the Netherlands. The Dutch centuries ago called their language Diets/Duuts/Duits which means something like Germanic. This was before the countries Germany and the Netherlands existed.
Diets is not a single language but a name for all the different regional languages spoken in the low lands. Diets is also known as Middle Dutch. The name was used to differentiate the languages from the Romance languages.
Hence why the English called the people of the low lands Dutch since the people of the low lands said they were speakers of Diets/Duuts/Duits.
Also in the Dutch national anthem there is a line that says “Ben ik van Duitsen bloed” “I am of Dutch/Deutsche blood” which does not refer to modern day Deutschland but to what all Germanic people in the low lands, what is now present day Netherlands, would call themselves back then.
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This is what confused me so much about germany's real name :)
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There isn't called there when you are there. It's called here there.
Same same but different
USA is called ABD in Turkey
well how else are you going to know I've visited if I can't go "Deutchland... sorry haha still thinking in German..."
I have another mindblowing fact for you: in Germany, the v is an f and the w is a v.
The v is an f in the beginning of the word and a v in the middle of a word.
I love how we all just keep adding to the clusterfuck that is the German language. ❤️
And s is z, z is c
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In Spanish Germany is Alemania. Just to add more confusion to this topic.
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I believe trump will be renaming it due to his ancestry.
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