Author Topic: Dutch Surnames  (Read 675 times)

Offline rebeccaclaire86

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Dutch Surnames
« on: Tuesday 11 June 19 21:04 BST (UK) »
Could someone please explain Dutch surnames to me?

I've got a very distant Dutch ancestor named Anna Hooftman born in the 1500's.  Her father was Gillis Hooftman van Eyckelberg and according to Wikipedia (and I know to take it with a pinch of salt until I've verified it) Gillis' father was Erken Arnt Hauptmann.  I don't understand what these surname changes signify and am trying to get my head around it all!  I did read online that the surname sometimes reflected the father's name, and I did wonder if the 'Eyckelberg' came from 'Erken' and possibly meant his son, but I am just guessing really! Could someone explain it to me please?

Thanks so much for any help, I'm really struggling to get my head around this and google isn't being astoundingly helpful tonight!
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Offline TreeSpirit

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Re: Dutch Surnames
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 12 June 19 06:36 BST (UK) »
I'm not a specialist, but this my 2 bobs worth.
Enforcement of registered surnames started abt 1811 when Napoleon introduced the civil registration. Note: Many people in the north were forced to switch from patronyms to surnames. And I've also seen some people start using totally different surnames in 1811 compared to what they were using before.

So it is not unusual to find more variations before 1811. What I can see in your case (and there could be more explanations):
- Hauptman is the German version of Hooftman ("hooft" is the old way of writing "hoofd"=head)
- Eyckelberg would nowadays be written as - most likely- Eikelberg (eikel = acorn, berg = mountain). An acorn is "eichel" in German and apparently "Eichelberg" was already attached to Anna's grandfather according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillis_Hooftman
Possibilities for Eichelberg: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichelberg






Offline davecapps

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Re: Dutch Surnames
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 12 June 19 08:23 BST (UK) »
Patronymische Namensbildung - Patronymic name formation

Until the end of the 18th century there were no fixed family names in the north of Germany.
The Danish government pased a decree in 1771 demanding fixed surnames.

The surname of a son was derived from the fathers first name and supplemented by a "-sen" (for son) or in some places a "-s".

An example of "patronymic naming":
Hans Momsen would be the son of Momme Jensen, grandson of Jens Jacobsen and great-grandson of Jakob Lütsen.
The oldest two sons were usually named after their grandfathers, the first born after his paternal grandfather.

For wives and daughters mostly the genitive ending "-s" was used.
A Cathrin who was married to a Melf was called Cathrin Melfs.

The oldest daughters were accordingly named after the grandmothers, other children after uncles and aunts.

Dave

Offline garstonite

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Re: Dutch Surnames
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 12 June 19 09:10 BST (UK) »
Could someone please explain Dutch surnames to me?

I've got a very distant Dutch ancestor named Anna Hooftman born in the 1500's.  Her father was Gillis Hooftman van Eyckelberg and according to Wikipedia (and I know to take it with a pinch of salt until I've verified it) Gillis' father was Erken Arnt Hauptmann.  I don't understand what these surname changes signify and am trying to get my head around it all!  I did read online that the surname sometimes reflected the father's name, and I did wonder if the 'Eyckelberg' came from 'Erken' and possibly meant his son, but I am just guessing really! Could someone explain it to me please?

Thanks so much for any help, I'm really struggling to get my head around this and google isn't being astoundingly helpful tonight!

A Familytree - as ever - we never know if it is correct - but I enjoyed reading it - seems they were originally from ANTWERP , Belgium - so not Dutch at all
Gillis Hooftman Van Eychelberg born Monday 14th september 1559 died - Friday 14th august 1615
............................................................................

https://gw.geneanet.org/prodigue?n=hooftman+van+eychelberg&oc=&p=gillis+aegidius

................................................................................................
Belgian - Antwerp trees
https://en.geneanet.org/fonds/individus/?go=1&nom=hooftman&prenom=gillis&prenom_operateur=or&with_variantes_nom=&with_variantes_nom_conjoint=&with_variantes_prenom=&with_variantes_prenom_conjoint=&size=10
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Offline rebeccaclaire86

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Re: Dutch Surnames
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 12 June 19 21:11 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the responses, I'm still struggling to understand fully but greatly appreciate the help!  Does it seem that Gillis had two different surnames then?  Eichelberg is part of Germany and not far from Frankfurt where Anne married, so I wondered if Hooftman was the surname and Eychelberg  could be the name of the place some of the family came from instead?

I have read a few documents that say Anne was from Antwerp so think that is right - I believe that during that time it was part of the Spanish Netherlands hence the Dutch/Belgian confusion!

I had read the ending being changed to -sen and -s to reflect the father's name, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.
Buckinghamshire; Bignell, Talbot, Janes, Gibbs
Cambrigeshire; Cockerton, Sharpe, Purkis
Hertfordshire; Rolph, Bigg, Marvell, Pateman, Hornsby, Jenkins
Norfolk; Crowfoot, Randlesome
London; Wyatt, Yarroll
Somerset; Date, Hodder, Leatherby, Webb
Suffolk; Palfrey, Yallop, Kerry, Codling, Steward, Pettitt
Ireland & Canada; Hanna, Teel, Cowin, Switzer