van (Dutch)
van Derivatives: van der, Vanderbilt | |
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Place of origin | Dutch |
van (Dutch pronunciation:
In surnames, it can appear by itself or in combination with an article (compare French de la, du, de l'). The most common cases of this are van de, van der and van den, where the articles are all current or archaic forms of the article de "the". Less common are van het and van 't, which use the similar but grammatically neuter article het. The contraction ver-, based on van der, is also common and can be written as a single word with the rest of the surname; an example being Johannes Vermeer (van der meer "of the lake").
Spelling conventions
Collation and capitalisation
In Belgium, any surnames beginning with "Van" or "van" are filed under "V". So for example Eric Van Rompuy is listed under the "V" section, not under the "R".[6] The lowercase spelling in a name from the Netherlands is respected but not necessarily differentiated in alphabetical ordering and its Dutch style capitalisation for certain usages is generally unknown and thus not followed. The painter's full name, however, having become commonplace, is usually spelled Vincent Van Gogh in Belgium. In Flemish surnames the "V" is always capitalised though a following interjected "de", "den" ('the') or "der" ('of the', 'from the') usually stays lowercase.
In South Africa the Afrikaans surname Van der Merwe would be listed under the "v" section as is done in Belgium and not under "m" as in "Merwe, J. van der"; however, South Africa follows the same capitalisation convention as the Netherlands (thus, one would refer in English or in Afrikaans to a "Jan van der Merwe" when the first name is included, but simply to "Van der Merwe" when the first name is omitted).
In anglicised versions of Dutch names (as in Dick Van Dyke, George Vancouver, Martin Van Buren, Robert J. Van de Graaff), the "van" is almost always capitalised in the United States, but in the British Isles some families of Dutch origin continue to use the Dutch form (e.g. Caroline van den Brul).[citation needed]
Names in other languages may contain a component "Van" that is unrelated to the Dutch preposition. The common
Concatenation
In some names, usually those of the Flemish/Belgian ones, and also some of the names of people from outside the Low Countries (with Dutch-speaking immigrant ancestors), the prefixes are
Nobility
The
Related prepositions
The preposition "van" is the most widely used preposition in Dutch surnames, but many others are also used, although not always recognised as such if the whole surname is written as a single word. Just as "van" all these prepositions used to indicate geographical locations:
- te – meaning "at" (or/of towards), (or ter and ten, being the old dative forms), e.g., ter Beek(of the stream)
- thoe/thor – being the old forms of te as in Thorbecke (meaning "at the brook")
- aan – meaning "at" or "aside" (also in combination aan de, aan den, aan het, aan 't), e.g., aan de Stegge (meaning aside the road)
- op – meaning "on" (also in combination op de, op der, op den, op ten, op 't, op het), e.g., as in Op den Akker (on the field)
- in – meaning "in" (also in combination in de, in den, in der, in het, in 't), in 't Veld (in the field)
- bij – meaning "at" (exclusively in combination bij de, bij 't): Bij 't Vuur (at the fire)
- uit – or archaic uyt (uijt), meaning "out" or "from" (also in combination uit de, uit den, uit het, uyt de, uyt den, uijt de, uijt den, uijt ten), e.g. Uytdehaage (from The Hague or from the hedge).
- over – meaning "over" or "from the other side" (also in combination over de), as in Overeem (from the other side of the river Eem (river))
- onder – meaning "under" or "below" or "at the bottom" (also in combination onder de), Onderdijk, Onderwater
- achter – meaning "behind" (also in combination achter de) Achterberg (behind the mountain)
- bezuiden – meaning "south of": Bezuidenhout (south of the woods)
- boven – meaning "above" or "up": Bovelander (up in the land)
- buiten – meaning "outside" or "in the country": Buitenhuis (outside the house)
- voor – meaning "in front of", (also in combination voor de, voor den, voor 't, voor in 't)
- zonder – meaning "without": Zonderland (without land) or Zondervan (without van, e.g. without a surname beginning with van)
Apart from these prepositions the prefix "de" (not a preposition but an article, meaning "the") is also very common. They indicate a property, quality or origin, as in "de Lange" (the tall one), "de Korte" (the short one), "de Kleine" (the little one), "de Groot" (the big one), "de Zwart", "de Wit", "de Rode" (the one with black, white, red hair or skin), "de Rijke" (the rich one). The most widespread Dutch family name is "de Vries" (the Frisian).
For Dutch people of French (usually
See also
- The dictionary definition of van at Wiktionary
- Roosevelt (name), originally spelled "Van Rosevelt" or "Van Rosenvelt"
- Van Halen
- Van Loo
- Van Rensselaer (surname)
Notes
- ^ While Rembrandt was actually born close to the Rhine, he merely inherited the name from his father, who already carried it. Van Beethoven neither lived nor was born in Bettenhoven, but a patrilinear ancestor perhaps was. Such names often go back centuries and may once have been mere self-imposed titles that their children then adopted.
References
- ^ "Did you know that Ludwig van Beethoven's roots lie in Mechelen?". 2017-07-14.
- ^ a b Brians, Paul (25 May 2016). "multipart names". Washington State University. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
- ^ taaladvies.net
- ^ woordenlijst.org, line 16.B
- ^ woordenlijst.org, line 16.D
- ^ "Vlaamse Volksvertegenwoordigers Per Fractie". Archived from the original on 2007-02-27. Retrieved 2007-02-27.