The North Sea has had various names through history. One of the earliest recorded names was "Septentrionalis Oceanus", or "Northern Ocean," which was cited by Pliny. 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, in American English in particular, were "German Sea" or "German Ocean", referred to the Latin names "Mare Germanicum" and "Oceanus Germanicus", and these persisted in use until the First World War.