Tasmania (n.) Look up Tasmania at Dictionary.com
1853, named for Dutch navigator Abel Tasman (1603-1659), who discovered it in 1642. It was called by him Van Diemen's Land for the Dutch governor-general of the East Indies. The Tasmanian devil so called since at least 1829, from its propensity for killing young lambs (other voracious fish or animals also have been named devil).