New Zealand was named by Dutch explorers who “found” the country - and named it after the Zeeland region in the Netherlands. It was “Nova Zeelandia”. Māori named their country Aotearoa meaning “land of the long white cloud”. It’s often called “Aotearoa New Zealand” as one now.
Deciram t1_j6haaw1 wrote
Reply to ELI5: How do they come up with names for countries in foreign languages? by bentobam
New Zealand was named by Dutch explorers who “found” the country - and named it after the Zeeland region in the Netherlands. It was “Nova Zeelandia”. Māori named their country Aotearoa meaning “land of the long white cloud”. It’s often called “Aotearoa New Zealand” as one now.