What's the story with Dutch surnames?

Tag : Dutch Clogs
On first arriving in the Netherlands, I allowed myself a littlesmile at the 'quirky Dutch' for having Wim Kok as prime minister.Then on getting my first job here, I was introduced to two of mycolleagues, Mr Uittenbroek and Ms Spring in 't Veld.
For the briefest of moments, I wondered if Mr. 'out of his pants'had a thing with Ms. 'jump in the field'. Tantalising! Well, youhad to see them to appreciate the picture.
But alas, as quickly as the idea formed in my mind, it was beatenback by the words of my old Irish language teacher in Dublin.'Foreigners don't have silly names. In fact, foreigners probablythink your own name is silly.'
And boy, he made his point loud and clear. A classmate who had thetemerity to find Mr O Hay's pronouncement amusing suddenly foundhimself the victim of a rather robust beating with a crutch (whichbelonged to a lad named O' Toole who had broken leg at the time).
The shock of the assault imprinted the teacher's words in my mindand consequently laughing at other people's names just isn't anoption.
Where it all began
So, what's the story with Dutch surnames? The defining moment cameon 18 August 1811 when Napoleon Boneparte - whose French army wereoccupying the Netherlands - signed a decree establishing a registryof births, deaths and marriages. Families, who until that time hadgot on just fine without a surname, were suddenly obliged to pick asurname.
It is a common misconception that the Dutch didn't take old'boney-parts' all that seriously and set about picking silly nameslike Borst (breast) and Kok anticipating they could drop them assoon as 'nappy' got what was coming to him. It is an interestingtheory but why didn't the Dutch follow through on this? Perhaps,after all, the Dutch took their new names seriously.
Genealogist Rick van der Wielen says that traditionally the Dutchused a patronymic system in which the father's first name becamethe first son's last name, and the other kids got the left overnames from the grandfather, great grandfather and so on. Graduallyin the 1600, people began to turn the patronymic name into modernsurnames - Jan Hendricksen (Jan the son of Hendrick) gave his sonthe surname Hendricksen instead of Jansen. A suffix was often addedto indicate "son of" or "daughter of". (Ex.Jan, son of Hendrick would be written Jan Hendricks, Jan Hendrickseor Jan Hendricksen.).
Women took a feminine form such as "s", "se","sd", "sdr", and even "sen" whichimplied the full suffix of "sdochter", meaning"daughter of". (Ex. Jannetje Dirksdr would be Jane,daughter of Dirk.
'But the Dutch, being independently minded, couldn't agree on asingle system. For instance one of the sons might use the nameHendricksen, while another might call himself Jansen, with anothersibling basing his name on his town of origin and another on hisoccupation, Brouwer (Brewer),' says van der Wielen.
Incidentally Van der Wielen's own name refers to a pool of wateralong the coast that remains after the tide goes out and not theDutch word for wheel.
The Dutch Top Ten
Genealogist Miriam Klaassen says that a combination of unflatteringnicknames, patronymic-based names, association with place of originand references to occupation have become the most popular surnames.
The top 10 surnames include: De Jong (the young), Jansen or Janssen(son of Jan), Bakker (baker), Visser (fisher), Smit (smith) andMeijer/Meyer (land agent).
Van Dijk is another all time favour but boringly enough it refersto the Dutch preoccupation with keeping sea water out of theirclogs rather than a reference to the mother's sexual preference.
My personal favourite is Van den/der Berg (from/of the mountain).Now that has got to be a joke.
We can have a giggle about the Dutch first name Pik which seems torelate to the Dutch word for the male organ but we should not losethe run of ourselves. Kok for instance means cook.
In the movie 'meet the parents', Ben Stiller plays a characternamed Gay Fokker and we are all supposed to laugh. But Fokker(breeder) is a perfectly legitimate surname in the Netherlands. Andwhile we are on the subject, my heart goes out to the Dutch man whoproudly announced 'I fok horses' when asked about his occupationduring an interview on British television some years back.
So come on, Dutch names are not so weird are all. But if you dohave to laugh, be sure there are no Irish teachers brandishing alarge crutch in the vicinity.
January 2002