Zeeland

:For the South Pacific country, named after the province, see New Zealand; (some notes on how New Zealand got its name are underneath).

Zeeland and New Zealand

The country of New Zealand (M?ori name: Aotearoa), was first made known to Europeans by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. He named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land of that name off Argentina. When that was shown not to be so, Dutch authorities named it Nova Zeelandia in Latin, followed by Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch, which Captain James Cook subsequently called New Zealand in English language. The name is only one letter away from the literal translation to English, New Sealand. The Z was possibly retained to partially preserve the Dutch pronuncation. It has also been suggested that Captain Cook assumed Nieuw Zeeland was named after the island of Zealand, Denmark. New Zealand is more than 100 times larger than Zeeland and has about 10 times the population.

Related Topics:
New Zealand - M?ori - Aotearoa - Abel Tasman - Argentina - Latin - Dutch - Captain James Cook - English language - Zealand - Denmark

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