van(Dutch)

"Van (Dutch surname)" redirects here. For other people named Van, seeVan (given name)andVan (surname).

van Derivatives: van der,Vanderbilt
Place of origin	Dutch

Owing to itsFlemishorigin, the surname ofLudwig van Beethovencontains the prefixvan,rather than (as might be expected of someone born inBonn) its German equivalentvon.

van(Dutch pronunciation:[vɑn]) is a very common prefix in Dutch languagesurnames,where it is known as atussenvoegsel.In those cases it nearly always refers to a certain, often quite distant, ancestor'splace of originor residence; for example,Ludwigvan Beethoven"from Beethoven" (maybeBettenhoven)andRembrandtvan Rijn"from theRhine".Vanis also aprepositionin theDutchandAfrikaanslanguages, meaning "of" or "from" depending on the context (similar toda,de,dianddoin theRomance languages).

In surnames, it can appear by itself or in combination with anarticle(compareFrenchde la,du,de l'). The most common cases of this arevan de,van derandvan den,where the articles are all current or archaic forms of the articlede"the". Less common arevan hetandvan 't,which use the similar but grammatically neuter articlehet.Thecontractionver-,based onvan der,is also common and can be written as a single word with the rest of the surname; an example beingJohannes Vermeer(van der meer"of thelake").

Spelling conventions

Collation and capitalisation

Collationandcapitalisationof names differs between countries. In theNetherlandsandSuriname,names starting with "van"are filed under the initial letter of the following name proper, soJohannes van der Waalsis filed under "W", as: "Waals, Johannes van der" or "van der Waals, Johannes".The "v" is written in lower case, except when the surname is used as standalone (when the first name or initials are omitted), in which case it is capitalised, as in "de schilderVincent van Gogh"and"de schilder Van Gogh"( "the painter Van Gogh" ).In compound terms like "de Van Goghtentoonstelling"( "theVan Goghexhibition ") the" v "is capitalised, unless the connection between the person and the concept is or has become very weak.

InBelgium,any surnames beginning with "Van"or"van"are filed under" V ". So for exampleEric Van Rompuyis listed under the "V" section, not under the "R".The lowercase spelling in a name from the Netherlands is respected but not necessarily differentiated in Alpha betical 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. InFlemishsurnames the "V" is always capitalised though a following interjected "de","den"('the') or"der"('of the', 'from the') usually stays lowercase.

InSouth AfricatheAfrikaanssurnameVan der Merwewould 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 inDick 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).

Names in other languages may contain a component "Van" that is unrelated to the Dutch preposition. The commonVietnamese middle name"Văn",often spelled in English text without diacritics, as in"Pham Van Tra",is a male given name, implying education.Where the "Van" is not of Dutch origin, such as in the Vietnamese middle nameWen or Van,(as inDương Văn Minh,Nguyễn Văn Thiệu), the "v" is not lowercase.

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 areconcatenatedto each other or to the name proper and form a single-worded or two-worded surnames,as inVanderveldeorVande Velde.Prominent examples include "Vandenberg" and "Vanderbilt".

Nobility

TheGerman"von"and EnglishHouse ofare a linguisticcognateof the Dutch "van";however, unlike the German"von",the Dutch"van"is not necessarily indicative of the person'snobilityorroyalty.Vanhas a history of being used by nobility and commoners alike to simply signify ancestral relation to a particular place (e.g.Willem van Oranje"William of[the] Orange [family]";Jan van Ghent"John [who hails] fromGhent").

Related prepositions

Main article:Tussenvoegsel

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), (orterandten,being the olddativeforms),e.g.,ter Beek(of the stream)
• thoe/thor– being the old forms ofteas inThorbecke(meaning "at the brook" )
• aan– meaning "at" or "aside" (also in combinationaan de, aan den, aan het, aan 't),e.g.,aan de Stegge(meaning aside the road)
• op– meaning "on" (also in combinationop 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 combinationin de, in den, in der, in het, in 't),in 't Veld(in the field)
• bij– meaning "at" (exclusively in combinationbij de, bij 't):Bij 't Vuur(at the fire)
• uit– or archaic uyt (uijt), meaning "out" or "from" (also in combinationuit de, uit den, uit het, uyt de, uyt den, uijt de, uijt den, uijt ten),e.g.Uytdehaage(fromThe Hagueor from the hedge).
• over– meaning "over" or "from the other side" (also in combinationover de), as inOvereem(from the other side of the river Eem (river))
• onder– meaning "under" or "below" or "at the bottom" (also in combinationonder de), Onderdijk, Onderwater
• achter– meaning "behind" (also in combinationachter 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 combinationvoor de, voor den, voor 't, voor in 't)
• zonder– meaning "without":Zonderland(without land) orZondervan(withoutvan,e.g. without a surname beginning withvan)

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 (usuallyHuguenot) origin whose ancestors never modified their surnames to fit Dutch norms, the prefix "de"is a French preposition similar in meaning to"van".

See also

• Roosevelt (name),originally spelled "Van Rosevelt" or "Van Rosenvelt"
• Van Halen
• Van Loo
• Van Rensselaer (surname)

External links

• The dictionary definition ofvanat Wiktionary