Other Prepositions
The preposition "van" is the most widely used preposition in Dutch surnames, but many others are also used, although not always recognized 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), (or ter and ten, being the old dative forms), e.g., ter Beek (of the stream)
- thoe/thor — being the old forms of te as in Thorbecke (meaning at the brook)
- aan — meaning "at" or "aside", e.g., aan de Stegge (meaning aside the road)
- op — meaning "on" (also in combination op de, op den, op 't, op der), e.g., as in Op den Akker (on the field)
- in — meaning "in" (in combination with the neutral particle: in 't), e.g., in 't Veld (in the field)
- uit — or archaic uyt, meaning "out" or "from", e.g. Uytdehaage (from The Hague or from the hedge).
- over — meaning "over" or "from the other side", as in Overeem (from the otherside of the river Eem)
- onder — meaning "under" or "below" or "at the bottom": Onderdijk, Onderwater
- achter — meaning "behind": Achterberg (behind de 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
- zonder — meaning "without": Zonderland (without land) or Zondervan (without van, e.g. without a surname beginning with van)
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 small 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 is "de Vries" (the Frisian).
Read more about this topic: Van (Dutch)