This is a pointless question, so I won’t post it in GQ: people from Germany are called Germans, people from France are French, and so on. So why are people from The Netherlands called Dutch? Seems to be a an english language version, since in Scandinavia we just call them Netherlenders.
It’s a corruption of Deutsch, “German”, which used to refer to Germanic peoples generally, not just who we call Germans today.
Actually, it stems from the Middle Dutch word Dietsch, which means “of the people”. The German word Deutsch has the same origin, as the two languages are closely related.
It’s interesting to know that the Dutch themselves call themselves Nederlanders, and their language Nederlands (incidently, Hollanders and Hollands are also used, but Holland really only refers to the provinces of Noord and Zuid Holland, not all 12 provinces). So I’m ok with it if the Anglo world started calling us Netherlanders to take the confusion with the Gerries away. 
The Dutch (including Flanders) USED to call themselves Dietsch/ duytsch. . . or what Coldfire said. I still don’t have a grasp of Walsch, though-- was that Middle Dutch for any foreigners, or someone specific?
Wallonia, or Wallonie in French, seems to mean land of the valleys, although there are some alternative theories as well (see the link).
Fine by me if that were to catch on. 
I am not, of course, any kind of Nederlander but I certainly think it is annoying of people to say “Holland”, when they mean the whole country of the Netherlands.
(Why, yes, I am a nit-picking idiot who gets annoyed on other peoples’ behalf 
)
Little Neddie Nederlander?
This is also why the Amish are known as the “Pennsylvania Dutch” when they’re actually ethnically German.
The Netherlands is a country?
nether (adj.): located beneath or below; lower or under.
This would seem to imply that the population is subterranean-- which would certainly be cool if true: a vast network of caverns stretching for untold miles beneath the earth, the eerie silence broken only by the slow drip of water on stone, the chirp of the blind cave cricket, and the echoing clatter of wooden shoes as pallid Nether-Landers move about in the eternal gloom, their unspeakable errands lit only by the pale gloaming radiance of luminous fungi.
If it’s simply a reference to the fact that much of the land is below sea level, then Americans would surely wind up confusing “Netherlander” with our own native term, “New Orleanian.” There’s really no ideal solution.
Anyway, nobody wants to hear about what the Little Nether Boy stuck in the dike.
Brilliant imagination there Terrifel, how am I now ever going to be able to keep a straight face in front a … ehm… a citizen from the Netherlands
because he is from the nether regions? 