# Great Britain, England **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704 "2002-10-24T15:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/21 "2002-10-24T20:14:11Z")
My guess is that Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch settlers named the places called Orange in New York (although there are Orange counties all over the US aren’t there?). Orange is the name of a royal dynasty that ruled in the Netherlands between the C15[sup]th[/sup] to C19[sup]th[/sup]. I believe the name ultimately derives from the town called Orange in France. I can’t guess why they felt the need for four Oranges. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@jacobsta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/22 "2002-10-24T20:21:35Z")
Having lived in South Orange, I know that the oranges are in New Jersey, not New York. I don’t know why the town was named “Orange” in the first place, but if you’re going to have a bunch of towns with similar names, doesn’t it make more sense to name them geographically, rather than just use some arbitrary convention ? At least this way, we know which direction we have to go to stay out of the Ghetto part (East Orange). ---
**Author:** ![if\_you\_don\_t\_know\_i\_won\_t\_tell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/fbc32d/32.png) [@if\_you\_don\_t\_know\_i\_won\_t\_tell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if_you_don_t_know_i_won_t_tell)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/23 "2002-10-24T20:24:04Z")
Oh, yeah, that does make sense. There’s also a Hollywood, and a California in Maryland, which I thought was kinda weird. Another interesting tidbit- there’s thousands of places named “Wilmington” out there. I went to an elementary school in Wilmington, Vermont, and our school had this cow we used to send to elementary schools all over the world in towns/places named “Wilmington”. This has nothing to do with the current conversation, but I thought it was interesting. Personally, If I founded a town, I’d want to name it something pretty and nice sounding. Honestly, the name Orange doesn’t really appeal to me, and it’s certainly not reminiscent of New York. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/24 "2002-10-24T20:24:47Z")
To avoid any confusion, **Go alien** and I are both right - the House of Orange was in charge of the Netherlands from 1463 to 1747, Orange-Nassau from 1747 to 1806, the French Bonapartes from 1806 to 1813, and Orange-Nassau again from 1813 to present. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/25 "2002-10-24T20:53:42Z")
> [@](#): > > my friends and I have been trying to come up with a word to use instead of “Americans” but to no avail. Well, you could use _Yank_, but that would tend to not sit well with folks south of Pennsylvania or the Ohio River. A neologism that has appeared on many newsgroups is _usans_, but since I have only seen the word, never heard it spoken, I do not know whether it should be pronounced “YOU sans” or “you-ess-AY-ans.” ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/26 "2002-10-24T21:38:03Z")
Re Holland in England- According to my book of British place names , the name Holland (which appears in Linconshire and Essex )means " land by or on a hill-spur ". and derives from Old English. Spelling in 1086 was “Hoiland” and " Hoilanda ". ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/27 "2002-10-24T22:09:00Z")
There are also a couple of places I know in Lancashire - Up Holland and Downholland Cross. They are mentioned in the Domesday Book and “land by or on a hill-spur” would be about right for them too. ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/28 "2002-10-24T22:40:39Z")
So is Up Holland on the spur and DownHolland Cross at the foot of it? (Up meaning “on the hill” or similar). ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/29 "2002-10-24T23:03:15Z")
Wish it was that easy **Bromley**. They’re about ten miles apart, both are near hill crests and Up Holland is a little higher above sea level. The land near Downholland is like a billiard table anyway, so I use the term “hill” in relative terms, as I expect they must have in the C11[sup]th[/sup]. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/30 "2002-10-24T23:12:34Z")
I used to think that England was Great Briton and the other islands were the lesser Britons. I was young then… ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/31 "2002-10-25T00:17:33Z")
In case this needs clarifying, the reason the big island is called Great Britain rather than just Britain is to distinguish it from the region of France called Brittany. The Romans referred to the big island as Britannia, and the Celtic people who lived there also spread to North West France between the C5[sup]th[/sup] and C6[sup]th[/sup]. The relevant French names are Grande Bretagne and Bretagne (i.e. Big Britain and Britain). ```auto On the subject of unexpected place names, between South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire you could easily drive from Wales to California via Rhodesia on a single tank of petrol. They appreciate economy like that up there ;). I'm sure that's an easier game to play in the USA than it is here of course. Normally we may assume that American places should be named after European ones in commemoration of places the settlers had left behind. But I assume that the existance of places called California in Lothian and Norfolk shows how the Gold Rush must have inspired naming of new settlements in the old country too. ``` ---
**Author:** ![toscar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f9ae1b/32.png) [@toscar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toscar)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/32 "2002-10-25T23:03:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\* Well, you could use _Yank_, but that would tend to not sit well with folks south of Pennsylvania or the Ohio River. > > A neologism that has appeared on many newsgroups is _usans_, but since I have only seen the word, never heard it spoken, I do not know whether it should be pronounced “YOU sans” or “you-ess-AY-ans.” \*\* Wot about “Merkins?” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/33 "2002-10-26T01:39:34Z")
With regard to Holland in Britain, I spent some time around The Wash and the Fens in Lincolnshire. I saw dikes, reclaimed land, windmills , and a tulip festival at Spalding. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/34 "2002-10-26T02:55:00Z")
Yes - if they took you on a ferry boat, allegedly heading for the Netherlands, but which actually sailed in a circle and went back there I wonder how long it would take to figure out that you were still in England? Notwithstanding **Rayne Man’s** earlier comments about the derivation of the name, Spalding is in the part of Lincolnshire called Holland. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704/35 "2002-10-26T03:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by toscar \* > Wot about “Merkins?” [No thanks](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_232.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-britain-england/133704.md?page=1)