Niet vernoemd naar Nederland, maar wel naar het Nederlandse gezichtspunt
The North Sea has had various names throughout history. One of the earliest recorded names was Septentrionalis Oceanus, or "Northern Ocean", which was cited by Pliny.[105] He also noted that the Cimbri called it Morimarusa – "Dead Sea".[106] The name "North Sea" probably came into English, however, via the Dutch Noordzee, who named it thus either in contrast with the Zuiderzee ("South Sea"), located south of Frisia, or because the sea is generally to the north of the Netherlands. Before the adoption of "North Sea", the names used in English were "German Sea" or "German Ocean", referred to as the Latin names Mare Germanicum and Oceanus Germanicus,[107] and these persisted in use until the First World War.[108] Other common names in use for long periods were the Latinterms Mare Frisicum, as well as the English equivalent, "Frisian Sea".[109][110] The modern names of the sea in the other local languages are:
Danish: Vesterhavet, lit. 'WestSea' [?vest??h??vð?] or Nordsøen [?no???sø?n?], Dutch: Noordzee, Dutch LowSaxon: Noordzee, French: Mer du Nord, West Frisian: Noardsee, German: Nordsee, Low German: Noordsee, North Frisian: Weestsiie, lit. 'WestSea', Swedish: Nordsjön, Bokmål: Nordsjøen [?nû?r??ø?n], Nynorsk: Nordsjøen, Scots: North Sea and Scottish Gaelic: An Cuan a Tuath