There are approximately 300,000 Dutch surnames.[1] This is in part due to an influx after an official registration of surnames became required in The Netherlands in 1811.[2] Another contributor is a long standardization process which started back in the Middle Ages and only culminated officially in 1980 when the Netherlands and Belgium established the Dutch Language Union.[3] There have been a few generations in which some surnames could become extinct, and many surnames that can be spelled differently.[4] In practice, the great majority of Dutch people had family surnames for centuries. The adoption of new names was limited to some Jewish citizens and some people in rural communities in the northeast of the country.[5]
Surnames were already used back in the Middle Ages in the Netherlands. They only became mandatory after the Napoleonic conquest of the Netherlands, and its subsequent annexation in 1811.[6] While the idea behind it was to simplify and standardize naming conventions across civilized Europe and record family events, it did not start the way it was expected. Because everyone had the freedom to choose their own surname, even within the same family, the idea of standardization was defeated. This can be combined with the fact that typical sources for surnames were unique and sometimes unflattering, like nicknames and traits. Patronymics, places of origin, professions, or positions within the community, or their own family were also used. The process was unfortunately not followed through and took until 1826 for everyone to meet this requirement.
The instituting of fixed surnames has made it much less difficult to organize families and prove generational connections today. Luckily enough, women’s maiden names were nearly always included in records from the Netherlands after Napoleon’s time, which became a blessing for genealogists researching Dutch ancestors. MyHeritage has a large, searchable database that includes a wealth of historical data from the Netherlands including census records, birth, marriage and death records, newspapers and government, land, court, and will records, with some of these collections containing records dating back to the 16th century.
Tussenvoegsels
Over 20,000 surnames in the Netherlands start with tussenvoegsels. These are prepositions and/or articles that have lost their original grammatical function and have transitioned to separable affixes, like van ("from/of"), de / den ("the"), van der / van den / van de / van 't ("from the"), ten / ter ("at the") and te ("at"). In the Netherlands, these tussenvoegsels are not included when sorting alphabetically.[7] For example, in the Dutch telephone directory, "De Vries" is listed under "V", instead of "D". Therefore, tussenvoegsels in Dutch databases are recorded as a separate data field to simplify the process of locating it. Sorting by tussenvoegsel would result in many names being listed under "D" and "V". These conventions are also followed in South Africa. However, in Flanders (Belgium), surnames are collated with the full surname including tussenvoegsels, which causes surnames "De Clerq" to appear before "Declerq" in a telephone book, for example.[8]
Dutch surname conventions
Traditionally, Dutch women took their husband's surname upon marriage by adding it after her maiden surname placing a hyphen between the two, like Catharina Weelinck-Smit, wife of Jan Smit, for example. This convention had no legal validity, as official documents continued to name the woman with her maiden surname only. Current Dutch law allows both partners to use either their own surname upon marriage, take their partner's surname, or use a combination of the two; however, the legal name of the person continues to be their original name before marriage.[9]
Dutch patronymics
In the north and east of the Netherlands, it had been common since the 10th century to name people after their ancestors, or the place where they lived. This is accomplished by using the suffixes -ma or -stra (of Frisian origin), or -ing or -ink (of Low Saxon origin), like Boerstra ("farmer"), Huizinga (from "huis", house), Reitsma (after an ancestor called Reitse), Schuiling ("shelter"), and Hesselink (after an ancestor called Hessel).
In other parts of the country, more classic patronymic names were used. For example, Jan Dirksen, which means Jan, son of Dirk. The -sen suffix could also be shortened to sz, z, se, and x, generating variants like Dirks, Dirkse, and Dirkx. Likewise, a woman would be called Dirksdochter, meaning daughter of Dirk, but could also use the abbreviated suffixes -d, -dr, -s, -se, -sen, -sens, and -x, thus creating other surnames like Dirksens and Dirksdr. After 1811, many patronymics became permanent surnames such that Peeters, Jansen, and Willems are common Dutch surnames today. These were in common usage in the Netherlands until the Napoleonic Wars at the turn of the 19th century.
In the former Netherlands Antilles, such as Curaçao, or Aruba, the use of female names as surnames are predominant, like Martina, Gustina, Bonevacia, and Benita, with Martina being the most common name on the island of Curaçao.[10] It is not known whether these surnames originated when freedmen without a known father adopted their mother's or grandmother's name as a surname, or they took the father's name with the -a suffix like some Dutch last names, sometimes adding -tsma or -inga suffixes instead.[11]
Examples of Dutch patronymic surnames
Dutch matronymics
Dutch is known also for having metronyms (names taken from the mother's name) as well as patronyms. The word “Ver” can be an indication of this, as it is an abbreviation of “vrouw” or “vrouwe” (woman or lady). The most commonly used forms of metronyms are the mother's name + -en (as in “Metten”), van + the mother's name (such as “van Keunen”), and ver- + the mother's name (e.g. “Verleyen”). Names like Bijl and Jut can be derived as short versions from female names like Sybilla, or Judith.
Examples of Dutch matronymic surnames
Dutch descriptive surnames
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During the Middle Ages, it was common in the Low Countries to use surnames describing a physical or character trait. This reference to a recognizable physical or inner characteristic of someone makes it easier to distinguish people with identical first names. Sometimes, people were even compared with animals, and their characteristics. Descriptive names give insight into the characteristics of a distant relative who lived around the Middle Ages, and might even explain certain traits in the family.
Examples of Dutch descriptive surnames
- Baardman (“bearded one”)
- Boosman (“angry one”)
- De Bruin, De Bruijn, De Bruyn (“the brown”)
- De Groot (“the large”)
- De Haas (“the hare”)
- De Jonge (“the young”)
- De Korte, Kortman (“the short”, “short one”)
- De Kromme (“the crooked”)
- De Roode, De Rooij (“the red”)
- De Vos (“the fox”)
- Goedhart (“good heart”)
- Pauw (“peacock”)
- Platvoet (“flatfoot”)
- Swart (“black”)
- Valk (“falcon”)
- Van Lievenoogen (“of the sweet eyes”)
- Zeldenrust (“restless”)
Dutch compound surnames
Compound surnames mostly originated from South Holland. The phrase word describes a person's character in sentence form. Examples of these compound surnames are Zeldenthuis (“rarely home”), Mooiweer (“fairweather”), De Kwaadsteniet (“the evil one”), and Zondervan (“without 'van'"), implying the person is a commoner.
Dutch foundling surnames
Foundlings were often named according to the circumstances in which they were found since all other context was missing. Verschueren (“from the barn”), Van de Vondeling (“of the foundling”), Bijdam (“at dam”), Egelantier (“eglantine rose”), Winters (“winters”), De Schruiker (“the cleaner”), Mandaag (“Monday”), and all other days of the week. Even Onbekend (“unknown”), and Naamloos (“nameless” or “unnamed”) are used.
Dutch toponymic surnames
During the Industrial Revolution, many people from remote areas moved to central cities such as Amsterdam where factory work was available. Many family names in Amsterdam come from other areas of the country like Flanders, Friesland, and even Germany. In Utrecht, place names and geographical characteristics often formed the basis of family names: think of “van Doorn,” “van Schaik,” “van Vliet,” and “van den Brink.” In Zeeland, mainly Flemish and Huguenot surnames were used, while Dutch translations of French or German surnames were also used in the larger cities of South Holland.
The place name can be divided into two categories: origin names, given according to a person's place of origin (such as Noort, which means “North”), and address names, which refer to someone's place of residence (such as van der Plas, “of the lake”). In Flanders, Brabant, and the eastern Netherlands, names were sometimes derived from the inns, castles, and farms where the person lived or worked. Place names are often accompanied by the word van, like van Duin, van der Wal, Van Dijk, van Rijn, and van den Berg. This short word was a way of referring to aristocratic origins. For example, the name Van den Beuck contained more status than Beukelaar.
Dutch occupational surnames
Professional names are almost directly derived from the work the person did, how they spent their time (“Burger,” which means “citizen”), or the position they held. Kleermaker (“clothes maker”), Postma (“postman”), Mulder (“miller”), De Ruijter (“the horseman”), and Steenbakkers (“brickmaker”) are all examples of this. There is also a more indirect form in which professional names do not describe the person’s occupation itself, but an object or characteristic of it. This is called a metonymic professional name. For example Koek (“cake”), or Kleerebezem (“clothes broom”).
Most common Dutch surnames
More than 5% of Dutch people have one of these surnames:[12]
| # | Surname | Etymology | Bearers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Jong | the Young | 86,534 |
| 2 | Jansen | son of Jan | 75,698 |
| 3 | De Vries | the Frisian | 73,152 |
| 4 | Van den Berg | from the Mountain | 60,135 |
| 5 | Van Dijk | from the Dike | 57,879 |
| 6 | Bakker | baker | 56,864 |
| 7 | Janssen | son of Jan, a variation of Jansen | 55,394 |
| 8 | Visser | fisherman | 50,929 |
| 9 | Smit | blacksmith | 43,498 |
| 10 | Meijer | the farmer who represented the landlord of feudal estates | 41,497 |
Celebrities with Dutch surnames
- Doutzen Kroes, Dutch fashion model
- Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ and record producer
- Rebecca Romijn, American actress
- Ruud Gullit, Dutch footballer
Explore more about Dutch surnames
- Discover the origin of your last name on MyHeritage
- Historical records from the Netherlands on MyHeritage
- Historical records from Belgium on MyHeritage
- Database of Surnames in the Netherlands at the Central Bureau of Genealogy in The Hague
References
- ↑ Database of Surnames in The Netherlands. Meertens Instituut
- ↑ Schulze, Lorine McGinnis (2008-03-04). Dutch Patronymics of the 1600s. New Netherland, New York Genealogy. Olive Tree Genealogy.
- ↑ Suriname. Taalunie
- ↑ Brouwer, Leendert. Why Many Dutch Surnames Look So Archaic: The Exceptional Orthographic Position of Names. York University, 2009.
- ↑ Netwerk Naamkunde. De naammythe van Napoleon. Meertens Instituut
- ↑ SURNAMES 1811. Historische Vereniging Noord-oost Friesland
- ↑ Hoitink, Y. Dutch term: tussenvoegsel. Dutch Genealogy
- ↑ Waar komen de hoofdletters in de Belgische naam patsy van der meeren?. Onze Taal.
- ↑ Dutch Culture|Naming conventions. Cultural Atlas. SBS Australia
- ↑ 3799 people on Curaçao with the last name Martina. Curaçao Chronicle. March 10, 2020
- ↑ Wiel, Keisha Irma Perceptions on the social status of Papiamentu in contrast to its official significance in Aruba and Curaçao. University of North Florida. 2007
- ↑ Top 10 most common Dutch surnames