is holland the name of the country or just a province in the netherlands?

Holland is a common term for the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands and therefore can be considered one country. However, it is really only a region of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The reason that the term Holland is common is because Holland is the region in the central-western part of the Netherlands where many tourists go. Originally, Holland was a county of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Count of Holland, and later the leading member of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden, 1581–1795).

Holland is a nickname of The Netherlands.

It came to be because most of the major cities...Amsterdam and The Hague are located in the province of Noord-Holland (north holland). Somewhere along the way people became lazy in referring to the netherlands as the netherlands and started calling it holland.

Holland is TWO provinces in The Netherlands. Because of overseas trade history - Holland is west coast - many people incorrectly refer to our country as "Holland" (like England / United Kingdom).

North:

Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe

West:

Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland

East:

Overijssel, Gelderland

Mid:

Utrecht, Flevoland

South:

Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Zeeland

http://nl.encarta.msn.com/media_81581996/De_Nederl...

Holland is actually just a Provence in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but Holland can also be used to in place of The Netherlands

Holland and The Netherlands and one in the same country. It's like USA, United States or America.

Holland is indeed two provinces. I believe it was a nickname given by the French? Many people (including the Dutch--I live in North Holland) refer to a wider area than these two provinces as "Holland," but the southern provinces don't really consider themselves "Hollanders" and Friesland in the north DEFINITELY doesn't like to have their country referred to as "Holland." (The Frisians have a slightly different cultural background and their own language.)

Holland or Netherlands is the same. This is the country.

it's the name of the country same as Netherlands, just not used as often