Pienaar is a well-known Afrikaans surname, derived from the French Pinard.
[1] It was brought to South Africa in 1688 by Huguenot settlers traveling with the Dutch East India Company.
[2] The extended progenitors of the Pienaar clan are Jacques Pinard, a carpenter from Eure-et-Loir, and Esther Foucher (born Suèvres, Orléanais).
After Esther's death Pinard later remarried Marthe le Fèbre, a native of Paarl.
An updated version of the Pienaar genealogy was compiled by Christo Viljoen, whose mother was née Pienaar, as the "Pienaar Familieregister" and published by the Huguenot Society of South Africa.