Dutch Americans (locative). Similarities between Dutch and English are abundant. Examples include the article "the" ("de" in Dutch), the words "book" ("boek"), "house" ("huis"), "pen" ("pen"), and, "street" ("straat"), among others. Dutch and English are both part of the West Germanic language group and share several aspects. Adaptation of place names between the languages is common, as was the case of New York, where several landmarks like "Conyne Eylandt" (Rabbit Island) became more suitable to Anglophones (Coney Island). Contact between other languages also created various creoles with Dutch as the base language. Two examples, Jersey Dutch and Mohawk Dutch, are now extinct.
Holland, New York included all the southern part of Erie County. The name was derived from Willem Willink, one of the original investors of the Holland Land Company, which owned most of the land in western New York and sold it off to cities and townships that exist today. The name "Holland" is one of many surviving remnants of the Dutch investors who once owned this region. As with the town of Willink, the locations named after these investors have been given new names. Many of the original town buildings met their fate due to fire. Today the Holland Historical Society resides in