Dutch name
Before the council of Trent (1545–1563), the Roman Catholic church did not have any regulation of the practice of naming children.
There are thought to have been a number of reasons the Christian names gained the upper hand, such as the Crusades, the larger ecclesiastical influence and the appearance of mendicant orders (such as the Franciscans and Dominicans) and most importantly, the veneration of saints and the appearance of patron saints.
Besides religious influence it is believed that fashion was the main reason to give children a Christian name.
With larger cities starting to flourish all across the Low Countries, wealthy citizens in particular became trend-setters in this regard.
[citation needed] In these times typical Dutch names such as "Kees" (Cornelis), "Jan" (Johannes) and "Piet" (Petrus) emerged.
This superstition disappeared after some time, even though a certain Le Francq van Berkeij writes the following in 1776: "bij veelen, een oud, overgeloovig denkbeeld, dat iemand weldra sterft, wanneer hij, gelijk men zegt, vernoemd is" ("many have a superstitious belief that a person will soon die when someone, as they say, has been named after him").
If someone's Christian name was Johannes, domestically he was referred to as Johan, Jan or Hans.
Working-class names Jan, Piet and Klaas (the Dutch proverbial equivalent to "Tom, Dick and Harry") were often replaced by middle-class Hans, Peter and Nico.
[5] There is a persistent myth that some Dutch citizens, as a way of protest, chose humorous names during the forced registration.
Many Dutch surnames originated from different personal qualities, geographical locations, and occupations.
However, Dutch names in English directories (e.g., reference lists of scientific papers) may be ordered on the full name including all prefixes (Van Rijn would be ordered under 'V'), partly because many Dutch emigrant families to English-speaking countries have had their prefixes capitalized for them, such as Martin Van Buren or Steve Van Dyck, and normal practice in English is to order on the first capitalized element.
Passports, and other official documents, continued to name her Anna Pietersen, even though there might have been "spouse of Jan Jansen" added.
However, in practice, the standard procedure is that when a woman marries, she either keeps her maiden name or has a double surname.
[citation needed] This can cause problems for foreign national females living in the country, as they may be required to present their passport as proof of identification.
These forms were commonly shortened, to Janszn./Jansz and Jansdr., or to Jansse, and finally to Jans which could be used for both male or female children.
In the North and East of the Netherlands, between 1000 and 1800 A.D. many people were named after their ancestors, sometimes after the place where they lived, by the suffix -ma or -stra (of Frisian), or -ing or -ink (of Low Saxon origin).
It should be remembered however that these figures are based on the data of an entire country, and on a smaller scale other names tend to dominate certain regions.
Over 20,000 surnames in the Netherlands start with tussenvoegsels, consisting of prepositions and/or articles that have lost their original grammatical function and have transitioned to separable affixes.
In the Netherlands, as for example in Germany, Spain, Portugal and (considering prepositions) France, the tussenvoegsels are not a part of the indexing process, and in encyclopedias, telephone books, etc.
In Belgium, as in English speaking countries, South Africa, Italy and (considering articles) France, indexing includes the tussenvoegsels, leading to large sections under "D" and "V".
In Belgium, primarily in West Flanders, prepositions and articles can be compounded with the surname (such as Vandecasteele) and a few combinations occur (Vande Casteele).
While in German surnames the addition of von before a geographical name often indicates that a person belongs to the nobility or royalty, van is too common in the Netherlands to make such a connection.
