Van in Dutch surnames. Dutch surnames: history, meaning and origin. Origin of Dutch surnames

Family prefixes- in some world nominal formulas, components and integral parts of the surname.

Sometimes they indicate aristocratic origin, but not always. Usually written separately from the main family word, but sometimes they merge with it.

Use in various countries

England

• Fitz - "son anyone", Anglo-Norman fitz(eg: Fitzgerald, Fitzpatrick)

Arab countries

• al (ar, as, at, ash) - indicates where a person comes from ( صدام حسين التكريتي ‎ saddam husayn at-tikritiy"Saddam Hussein of Tikrit")
• abu - father - abu-Mazen (father of Mazen)
• ibn - son - ibn-Khottab (son of Hottab)
• Haji is an honorary title for a Muslim who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca

Armenia

• Ter or Turn - [տեր] կամ Տերն, in the ancient Armenian original tears(Armenian տեարն), “lord”, “lord”, “master”. This prefix was placed before the surname when the owner of this surname was the son or descendant of a priest. For example: Ter-Oganov Arsen Aramovich, also the highest church rank. Ter-Petrosyan (Armenian: Տեր-Պետրոսյան).
• Melik is a prefix before princely surnames.
• Nor - [Նոր], an uncommon form of prefix in Armenian surnames.

Germany

Austria and Hungary

Austria initially followed the general German system, but with late XIX century, when the devaluation of the nobility and the massive appropriation of noble titles began, new nobles were usually added the particle “von” before their surname, and not before the name of the estate.

In Hungary before noble families the particle “de” was inserted, borrowed from the French language.

Unlike Germany, where the use of noble particles continues, although it has lost its former prestige, in Austria their use was banned in 1919, and in Hungary after World War II.

Scandinavia and Finland

The tradition of using the particle “von” before noble surnames was borrowed from Germany in the 18th century. Currently, only a few surnames still use this particle.

Israel

• Ben, bar - (Hebrew בן - son) (for example: David Ben-Gurion)

Spain

• de - (for example: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)
• Del, de la - the same particle together with the article (for example, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna)

Italy

• della

Netherlands

Portugal

As in Galicia, Spain, France and other countries that arose after the collapse of the Roman Empire, in Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking countries the family prefix de is an identifier noble birth [specify] :

• de ( de) - Gomes Freire de Andrade
• du ( do) m.r. units h.
• Yes ( da) and. R. units Part - Vasco da Gama
• shower ( dos) m.r. pl. Part - Jose Eduardo dos Santos
• dash ( das) and. R. pl. h.

France

In France, surname prefixes denote noble origin or family employment. Translated into Russian, the prefixes mean Genitive, “from” or “…skiy”. For example,

In any group you can meet a person with an unusual, strange or very As a rule, its origin depends on the specific traditions of the country in which its owner was born. For example, Dutch surnames are considered one of the funniest in the world. Find out why in this article.

Last name: from birth and for life

The very word “surname,” so familiar to us today, comes from ancient Roman. This word meant a large and strong family with a man at the head. Then the ancient Romans included in the concept of family, by the way, slaves who served their owners. In Russia, the rules were practically the same: before the abolition of serfdom, peasants bore the same surname as the landowner.

Nowadays, there is nowhere without a surname - it is given to us from birth and most often remains with us for life. Except in special cases, of course.

History of funny Dutch surnames

Dutch surnames are considered the funniest in all of Europe, and there is a very reasonable historical explanation for this. When the nation was conquered by Napoleon in 1811, he issued a decree that forced everyone in the Netherlands to acquire a French surname.

The Dutch themselves, who had previously only had names, were not going to obey the law. And since they believed that the occupation of the country was only a temporary measure, they decided not to bother themselves or rack their brains by coming up with names. And the freedom-loving people were not at all against mocking the invaders.

This is how absolutely stupid surnames appeared that were simply impossible to pronounce without laughing. For example, Naaktgeboren, which literally means “born naked.” Or Piest (“pissing”). There were also entire family branches under the surname Rotmensen - translated from Dutch, “rotten people.”

A few years later, the war with Napoleon ended, and the inhabitants of the country became independent again. However, contrary to expectations, the law was never repealed. So the heirs of these people have to bear dissonant surnames to this day. But they are rightfully considered the most original in the world.

What does "van" mean in Dutch surnames?

Recognizability of family names is given by their unique prefixes: “van”, “de”, “van der” and others. This is why Dutch surnames are so widely known abroad. For example, in the USA they are very popular.

Many Americans automatically associate Dutch surnames with prestige and high income. Mainly due to the fact that the rich industrialists came from the Netherlands. Take for example But his last name, despite beautiful sound, the most ordinary thing. There was a town near Utrecht, it was called Bilt. And the surname Van-der-Bilt (Vanderbilt) means a native of this town, that is, one who comes “from Bilt.”

The Germans also have a memorable prefix von, indicating the aristocratic status of the bearer. But the Dutch version of van is much more prosaic, and there is no social status doesn't stand behind him.

The residents of the Netherlands usually write the prefix “van” with a small letter (with the exception of initials or the beginning of a sentence), but abroad it can be found written with a capital letter.

The most popular Dutch names

In general, the Netherlands is a state, although small, but very socially rich. Proximity to Belgium and Germany, a rich ethnic and religious composition, several indigenous groups - all this cannot but influence Dutch names and surnames.

If you want to know all about names in this country, it's worth visiting your local Bank social insurance. In addition to its main task - insuring the population from all kinds of disasters, this structure also deals with statistics on the names of residents.

Once every three months, bank employees post lists of the most popular names - male and female - on the official website. You can also notice a trend of decreasing or increasing popularity of each name compared to the previous period. Any name can be found full information, including its origins, etymology, correspondences in other languages, and known speakers.

It is curious that you will only find information on names in the Dutch version of the site. Although it itself is available in many languages, including English, German, French and Spanish. However, you need to understand Dutch to know the most popular Dutch first and last names.

Male names, for example, Daan, Sem, Lucas, Milan, Thomas, are found here at almost every turn. And if we talk about popular women's ones, then these are Emma, ​​Julia, Sophie, Lotte, Lisa and Anna.

Origin of Dutch surnames

Today, almost any Dutch surname can be classified into one of four categories based on origin: geographical, occupational, descriptive or familial:

1. Surnames that are derived from the region in which the bearer lives or his ancestor once lived are widespread. For example, de Vries. Sometimes it’s not even just a region, but a specific estate or place where a person worked - van Aller or van de Vliert (literally “coming from a farm”)
2. Another example typical surname- by profession. For example, Haak means “peddler”, Kuiper means “cooper”, and with de Klerk everything is clear - the person worked as a clerk.
3. The third group of surnames came from certain physical features a person or his character traits. For example, Dik means "fat" and de Groot means "big". Not everyone is lucky with their last name, what can you say.
4. The last group of surnames is associated with the origin of its bearer and conveys family ties. Addicks means nothing more than “son of Addick”, and Evers means “son of Ever”. That is, a kind of patronymic is an analogue of what we wear in Russia.

Interesting facts about Dutch surnames

• Dutch male surnames, like ours, are given once and for life. When a girl gets married, she has a choice. She can either keep her last name or combine it with her husband’s last name, turning it into a double one. Many people prefer the first path if the groom's surname is completely dissonant.
• There are more than one hundred thousand original Dutch surnames. And many of them you will not find anywhere else.
• The surname de Jong means "young" and is often given to a younger family member with the same name. While the analogue de Oude “senior” is much less common. This is understandable - it is not customary to call someone who already has a specific surname a new name just because a new member has appeared in the family.
• The most popular Dutch surnames are Vries, Jansen, van de Berg, Bakker, van Dijck and Visser.

Hello dears.
We continue the conversation we started yesterday:
Well, of course, there is no way for us to get around the French
In France, prefixes to surnames previously denoted noble origin or family employment. Now, of course, this is no longer such a pressing question :-)) The most common prefix is ​​“de” and it can be translated as “from”. Let us remember the unforgettable Dumas and his “Three Musketeers” Marie Aimée de Rohan-Montbazon, Duchess de Chevreuse, for example.

You say - what about d’Artagnan? He’s not De Artagnan... Everything is according to the rules :-)) The fact is that if the surname began with a consonant, then there was the option de, and if with a vowel, then d." As a variant of the first option, there were also the prefixes "du" - Well, the same Porthos later became Baron du Vallon de Brassier de Pierrefonds or de la (de la) - Athos, Count de la Fère.

When the surname began with a vowel, there were also variants of “dez” - Mr. dez Esar and much sharper
"de l"". Everything is simple here. Although this moment last names are just last names :-)

Ledru des Essarts Francois Roche

Unlike the Germans, Scandinavians and French, everything is completely different in Dutch surnames. Very often their surnames have prefixes. The most common is, naturally, “van”
van (fan), which, by the way, is spelled together with the surname. It is similar to the German “von” and also depends on some kind of territorial designation, but does not at all indicate noble origin, but rather the opposite. Especially if used with another prefix - “den”. On the one hand, there seems to be the influence of the French “de”, and on the other hand, if there is any Van den, then he is from the common people.

Reinier Cornelis Backhuizen van den Brink (senior) - botanist

There are several other options: “van de”, “van der”, “van ten”, “ter”, “t`” is much less common


Edwin van der Sar
The noble one is the double prefix van...that (for example, Baron van Vorst tot Vorst).

The Italian tradition also has several prefixes to surnames. And historically the prefixes meant the following:
De / Di - belonging to a surname, family, for example: Eusobio Di Francesco means “one of the Francesco family”,


Yes - belonging to the place of origin: Da Vinci - “Leonardo from Vinci”, where Vinci meant the name of a city or locality. Subsequently, Yes and De became simply part of the surname and now do not mean anything. It is not necessarily an aristocratic origin.

The prefixes "la" and "lo" often preceded nicknames (la Fabro - blacksmith) or indicated foreign origin (Lo Greco - from Greece, from a Greek family).
More aristocratic would be the prefix "della" ("del"). But here, too, you can make a lot of mistakes. della Rovere is a family Popes, and Del Duca only says that the ancestors of the owner of the surname belonged to some duke :-)

Francesco della Rovere from the same Sixtus IV

To be continued...
Have a nice time of day.

Van is a prefix to a surname - a particle that sometimes forms a prefix to Dutch surnames derived from the name of a locality; often it is written together with the surname itself. Matching By grammatical meaning of the German particle “von” (von), the Dutch (van) cannot, however, be considered, like the first, a sign noble origin[Those Dutch names with the prefix Van, Van de, Van den or Van der, which are not included in the number of words beginning with the syllable Van, should be searched under the letters with which the name itself begins.].

encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

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