[Freak_NL]

It's pretty cool.

About the province's name though: it's Fryslân (West Frisian (a language spoken in the province) and official Dutch), Frisia (English), or Friesland (Dutch vernacular).

The reason it is called 'Friesland' on English language Wikipedia has to with the fact that there are (seemingly) no acceptable sources that can prove that Frisia is what most Frisian folk call their province in English, and what English speaking folk that have some dealings with the province do too. Of course, often the official West Frisian and Dutch name of 'Fryslân' is used as well in various documents and publications, but due to a number of non-Frisian Dutch Wikipedians who hate that the official name can be used in English instead of the Dutch vernacular 'Friesland' (language politics, often bordering on rather nasty nationalistic sentiments), English Wikipedia uses the vernacular Dutch name that is neither the common exonym (Frisia) nor the official name and endonym (Fryslân).

[polytely]

> no acceptable sources that can prove that Frisia is what most Frisian folk call their province in English

That is fascinating, I get why Wikipedia has to be careful with what sources are acceptable, but it produces the weirdest conflicts sometimes.

Thanks for correcting me and sharing this!

[Freak_NL]

Don't get me started. There is a town in this province called Grou, which was called Grouw (extra 'w') in Dutch until the Frisian (which was always 'Grou') and Dutch names were made the same thirty years ago. It's only a small town (a village really), so the further you get away from the province, the less known it is.

This is fine.

In the province of Fryslân many people speak Dutch as the first (or only) language, and many people Frisian. The town is called 'Grou' in nearly all Dutch language publications. That includes tourist sites in Dutch, newspapers in Dutch, municipal records in Dutch, the local train station, the bus stops, and most importantly, what the inhabitants of the village call themselves, in Frisian, as well as is in Dutch.

This is fine.

So on the Dutch language Wikipedia, the village is stubbornly called 'Grouw', because that is its Dutch name (it isn't). And the Wikipedians whose hobby it is to defend such choices go to extreme lengths to defend this choice. It doesn't matter that the ground-truth is that the old Dutch name is no longer used (in Dutch!), but only that there are no sources that are not government sources (because these are biased to the formal name, which might not be what people use), and is not a local source, because, hey, the locals are all Frisians (who often speak Dutch as their first language), and this is the Dutch Wikipedia. There is however, an academic source from the official Dutch language institute that lists the old name as the Dutch name of that village, and until that list is changed, Wikipedia will bravely defend the use of a name no one uses.

I think the relevant Wikipedia policy that makes this possible will change some time soon, which in local Wikipedia time means a few more years of this nonsense.

The village itself mostly doesn't care, and just goes on calling itself whatever it bloody well pleases them (which is, barring some odd exceptions, Grou).

I live in the same municipality and find this Wikipedia situation amusing/annoying/disturbing, because Wikipedia is the first thing anyone writing about the village grabs for the bare facts. That the name there is simply and plainly wrong is noted by many, but not by all, which is, incidentally, also why Facebook and Instragram automatically tag posts and addresses from Grou as 'Grouw', thus further perpetuating an untruth.

Sorry for the rant. :)

[benjohnson]

There's a small chance that Goru caves and changes their name - the extra W in Grouw standing for Wikipedia.

[Freak_NL]

Not likely in the digital age perhaps, but I'm sure there must have been places that have got their names changed because tertiary resources called them thus.

And of course there is the classic “you are now called 'X' because I've got a (bigger) gun and/or bring [what I consider superior] civilization”, but that's a rather different beast (e.g., Formosa, Batavia, New Zealand, Ayers Rock).