Bas Zoetekouw wrote:
Hi Erik! You wrote:and while we're at it - netherlands is really holland.No, it's not, actually. Holland is only part of the Netherlands.
well, yes. but: in slovakia the name for the country is holandsko (slovak spelling for holland). maybe it insults some people in netherlands but that's how it is. so for me it makes perfect sense to call that country holland, I didn't even knew it's called netherlands until I learned english...
I am sure that is not the only example where the name of the country is confused or country has completely different names in different languages.
so it makes sense to stick with _some_ standard. adjusting the names based on personal preference of one or another person (or group of people) doesn't make much sense - you're getting into issues that cannot be satisfactorily resolved.
erik