The name "Belgium" is derived from the Latin "Belgica" or "Belgium", which was the name of the area comprising roughly Northern France and Belgium of today. American people may be more interested in this story. From 1615, Dutch colonists settled the area between Virgina and New England and named it Novum Belgium (or Novo Belgio, Nova Belgica, Novi Belgii or else Nieuwe Nederland). The reason is that "Belgium" referred in Latin to the Netherlands, and Latin names were common at the time, like for Nova Scotia (New Scotland), which remained to this day. Let us add to this story that many of the Dutch settlers who purchased the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans came from today's Belgium -- most of them from Wallonia. Peter Minuit himself was a Walloon.
