Holland as pars pro toto
Historically, "Holland" served as the official national name only between 1806 and 1810, during the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland; otherwise, it has always been a region or county within the historical countries of the Dutch territory. In today's Netherlands, Holland comprises the provinces of North Holland and South Holland, representing two of the country’s twelve provinces, covering about 13% of its national territory and approximately 38% of the Dutch population.
'Hollandocentrism' refers to the tendency to centre Holland in representations of the Netherlands. This is partly explained by the historical cultural, political, and economic dominance of Holland within the Netherlands, which (inter)nationally became the most influential region of the country and positioned it as the primary point of international contact. This dominant position resulted in the incorrect use of "Holland" as a pars pro toto or synecdoche for the entire country, akin to tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England". The practice of referring to the entire country as "Holland" is controversial within the Netherlands. Many Dutch people, particularly those from outside Holland, object to this usage as inaccurate or misrepresentative, drawing parallels to Northern Irish, Welsh or Scottish objections when the UK is referred to as England.
The predominance of Holland has fostered regionalist sentiments among other provinces, which perceive Holland as a threat to their local culture and identity. Holland and its inhabitants are often associated with strong, frequently negative stereotypes, to whom certain qualities are ascribed within a mental geography, a conceptual mapping of spaces and their inhabitants. Conversely, some Hollanders take their region's cultural centrality for granted, treating "Holland" and "the Netherlands" as interchangeable and identifying primarily as Dutch rather than specifically as Hollanders, excluding the majority of the Dutch citizens in this definition. The phenomenon known as hollandocentrism encompasses both the perspective and the broader cultural dominance of Holland.
In 2009, members of the Senate stated that "if in addition to Holland a recognisable translation of the Netherlands does exist in a foreign language, it should be regarded as the best translation" and that "the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a right to use the translation it thinks best, certainly on official [Dutch] documents". Since 2019, the Dutch government has officially favoured "the Netherlands" in all international communications. They stated: "It has been agreed that the Netherlands, the official name of our country, should preferably be used."
Whilst "Holland" has been replaced in English as the official name for the country of the Netherlands, several other languages still use it, or a calque of it, as the official contemporary terminology to refer to the Netherlands. This is predominantly the case in Southeast Asia, but can for example be seen in:
