Behind the Name: Dutch Place Names

AALST (Settlement) Dutch
Possibly from Germanic alhust meaning "living place". This is the name of various towns in the Netherlands and Belgium.

AARLE (Settlement) Dutch
Meaning unknown. This is the name of various towns in the Netherlands.

ACHTHOVEN (Settlement) Dutch
Means "eight gardens" in Dutch. This is the name of various towns in the Netherlands.

ADRICHEM (Settlement) Dutch
Means "Adrik's home". This was the name of an estate and castle (demolished in 1812) that was formerly in North Holland, the Netherlands.

ALTENA (Settlement) Dutch
Possibly means "close, near" in Dutch. This is the name of a town in the Netherlands.

AMERIKA (Region & Country) German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Croatian, Serbian
Form of AMERICA, used to refer to the continents and sometimes to the United States of America.

AMERSFOORT (Settlement) Dutch
Means "ford of the Amer (Eem) River" in Dutch. This is the name of a city in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

AMSTEL (River) Dutch
Means "water place" in Dutch. This is the name of a river in the Netherlands, which lent its name to Amsterdam.

AMSTERDAM (Settlement) Dutch, English, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, French, Polish
Means "dam on the AMSTEL" in Dutch. This is the name of the capital city of the Netherlands, first mentioned with this name in the 13th century.

ANDEL (Settlement) Dutch
Possibly means "upper forest" in Old Dutch. This is the name of a town in North Brabant in the Netherlands.

ANTWERPEN (Settlement) Dutch
Dutch form of ANTWERP.

APELDOORN (Settlement) Dutch
Means "apple tree" in Dutch. This is the name of a city in the Netherlands.

ARENDONK (Settlement) Dutch
Derived from Dutch arend "eagle" and donk "hill". This is the name of a city in northern Belgium.

ASCH (Settlement) Dutch
From Old Dutch aska meaning "ash tree". This is the name of a town in the Netherlands.

ASSENDORP (Settlement) Dutch
From Dutch es meaning "ash tree" (plural essen) and dorp meaning "village". This is the name of a city in the Netherlands.

BABYLON (Settlement) English, German, Dutch, Biblical, Ancient Roman, Biblical Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Greek
Greek form of Akkadian Babili, which is of uncertain meaning. It is often explained as meaning "gateway of God", from Akkadian babu "gate" and ilu "God", though it may in fact derive from a non-Semitic language. This was the name of a major city in ancient Mesopotamia, the capital of the Babylonian Empire. It was located in present-day Iraq.

BEERS (Settlement) Dutch
Possibly from Dutch baar meaning "bar". This is the name of a town in the Netherlands (plus a smaller one in Frisia).

BRAZILIË (Country) Dutch
Dutch form of BRAZIL.

BUREN (Settlement) Dutch
From Old Dutch bur "house, dwelling". This is a small town on the island of Ameland in the north of the Netherlands, as well as a small city in Gelderland.

CANADA (Country) English, French, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian
Derived from the Iroquoian word kanata meaning "village". This word was used by Native Americans to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to Stadacona. Cartier used the word to refer to the region.

CHINA (Country) English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Sanskrit
From Persian چین (Chin), probably derived via Sanskrit चीन (China) from Qin, the name of a dynasty that ruled in China in the 3rd century BC. In China the name Zhongguo is used to refer to the country.

DUITSLAND (Country) Dutch
Dutch form of DEUTSCHLAND.

FINLAND (Country) English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch
From Old Norse Finnr, which referred to the Finn and Sami peoples, combined with land. This is the name of a country in northern Europe, called Suomi in Finnish.

FRANKEN (Region) German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
German form of FRANCONIA.

FRANKRIJK (Country) Dutch
Dutch cognate of FRANKREICH. This is the Dutch name for France.

HOFWEGEN (Settlement) Dutch
From Dutch hof meaning "garden, courtyard" and weg meaning "way, path, road". This is the name of a town in the Netherlands.

INDIA (Country) English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Romanian, Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek
Derived from the name of the INDUS River. In many languages of India, the name Bharat is used to refer to the country.

INDONESIË (Country) Dutch
Dutch form of INDONESIA.

JAPAN (Country) English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Croatian, Serbian
From Portuguese Japão, which was derived from a Malay form of Riben, the Chinese reading of NIPPON.

JORDAAN (River) Dutch
Dutch form of JORDAN (the river).

JORDANIË (Country) Dutch
Dutch form of JORDAN (the country).

KANNE (Settlement) Dutch
Meaning unknown. This is the name of a town in the province of Limburg in Belgium.

KENIA (Country & Mountain) German, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, Polish
Form of KENYA.

KONGO (Region, River & Country) Central African, Kongo, German, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Russian, Croatian, Serbian
Form of CONGO.

KOREA (Country) English, German, Dutch, Finnish, Czech
From medieval Latin Corea, itself derived from GORYEO, the name of a kingdom which ruled most of the Korean Peninsula from the 10th to 14th centuries. This is the name of two countries, North and South Korea. Hanguk and Joseon are the Korean names for the countries.

LONDEN (Settlement) Dutch
Dutch form of LONDON.

NEPAL (Country) Nepali, Indian, Hindi, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Sanskrit
From Sanskrit नेपाल (Nepal), of unknown meaning. This is the name of a landlocked country in south Asia.

NIFTRIK (Settlement) Dutch
Meaning unknown. This is the name of a town in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands.

NIGER (River & Country) English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Croatian, Serbian, Late Roman
Meaning unknown, possibly of Berber origin, though influenced by Latin niger "black". This is the name of a river in western Africa (and a country which is named after it).

OIRSCHOT (Settlement) Dutch
Possibly from Dutch oeros meaning "aurochs" and schoot meaning "projection (of land)". This is the name of a town in the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands.

OLYMPUS (Mountain) Ancient Roman, English, Dutch
Latinized form of OLYMPOS.

PAKISTAN (Country) Urdu, Punjabi, English, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian
From Persian پاک (pak) meaning "pure" and the suffix ستان (stan) meaning "land of". The name was coined in 1933 by the Pakistani nationalist Choudhry Rahmat Ali who justified it as an acronym of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir and Sindh, plus the final three letters of Baluchistan.

PEKING (Settlement) German, Dutch, Czech, English (Archaic)
German, Dutch and Czech form of BEIJING, as well as an older English form.

PERZIË (Country) Dutch
Dutch form of PERSIA.

PEY (Settlement) Dutch
Meaning unknown. This is the name of a town in Limburg in the Netherlands.

POLEN (Country) German, Dutch
German and Dutch form of POLAND.

PORTUGAL (Country) Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Croatian, Serbian
From Portugale, which was derived from PORTUS CALE, the old name of the city of Porto. The name of the city was later applied to the entire country.

PRETORIA (Settlement) Southern African, Afrikaans, Dutch, English
From the surname PRETORIUS. This is the name of a city in South Africa, named after the 19th-century Boer leader Andries Pretorius.

ROES (Region) Dutch
Dutch form of RUS.

ROSSUM (Settlement) Dutch
From the older Rotheheim, derived from Dutch rothe "cleared area in a forest" and heim "home". This is the name of a town in Gelderland in the Netherlands.

RUSLAND (Country) Dutch
Dutch cognate of RUSSLAND.

SCHOORL (Settlement) Dutch
From older Scoronlo, meaning "forest by the shore" in Dutch. This is the name of a town in the province of Noord-Holland in the Netherlands.

SPANJE (Country) Dutch
Dutch form of Hispania (see SPAIN).

STOCKHOLM (Settlement) Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, English, German, Dutch, French
From Swedish stock "log" and holme "islet". The islet probably referred to Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. This is the name of the capital city of Sweden. The first written mention of the name occurs in 1252.

VIETNAM (Country) English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish
From Việt Nam, meaning "southern Yue", derived from Sino-Vietnamese 越 (việt), referring to the Yue people, and 南 (nam) "south". This is the name of a country in southeastern Asia.

VLAANDEREN (Region) Dutch
Dutch form of FLANDERS.

WIEREN (Settlement) Dutch
Means "seaweed" in Dutch. This is the name of towns in Frisia and other parts of the Netherlands.

ZWEDEN (Country) Dutch, Medieval Dutch
Dutch form of SWEDEN.

	Usage
	Initial letter
	Type
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