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The Kalamazoo Valley Family Vol. 2, No. 1 September 1972 Page 35 |
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FAMILY NAMES AND HOW THEY CAME ABOUT.
"THE DUTCH"
Researching family names in the Netherlands presents something of a paradox. First of all these people are referred to by English speakers as -"the Dutch", apparently in relation to the German term for themselves "Deutsch", the two words are pronounced alike. In the Netherlands the name of the language spoken is Netherlandic, and while it has points in common with German, it also has important points of difference. Many German speakers can understand "Dutch" until they run into words rooted in Flemish or Frisian. The Netherlands like other countries has differing: dialects spoken by different parts of the country.
To this confusion must be added the prefixes and suffixes of refugees welcomed into the country. The Dutch were always quite hospitable to others in trouble.
The most common prefixes were (of), or (of the), for example the man who lived on a mountain, might be referred to as - "of the mountain: In Dutch, this would be expressed as "Van den Burg", the same meaning in French is De le Montagne. Both names appear in Holland today.
Thus we see
that "of the would refer to a general feature rather than one specific place. It
has been said that the use of one prefix (of) only, indicates that the holder
was originally "Landed Gentry", or minor nobility. Centuries ago when the vast
majority of the population owned no land, the mere fact of owning even an acre
or so meant much more than it does today. The reasoning illustrated by an
example;
Van Sparrentak - simply means "of Sparrow's Nest", a somewhat odd
name, if you read it literally. It is unlikely that any man would adopt such a
name, unless he took it from a specific feature, like his house: Which is
precisely what happened. Now, before students of languages point out that
"Sparren" does not mean "Sparrow" in Dutch, check the Frisian dialect!
Those who took the name of a feature of the land, or the name of their estates account for all the "Vans", but some took the name of a structure of the land without the prefix. A man who lived near the North Dike, became known simply as Nordyke. Quite often the Dutch took names from painted signs of Inns near their Place of residence as the English did.
Occupational and Nicknames follow the same procedure common in Great Britain, mainly because most of the Dutch followed the sea, and often visited neighboring countries, as well as those over the seas. An example of occupational names is: Eisenhower, which is German, and translates as "Irow-hewer", an artist as opposed to Eisenschmidt which is "Blacksmith or Ironsmith". Oddly enough both names appear in the Netherlands. To sum up, the Dutch are a mixture of all that is rood in Europe.
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