General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: My name
Posted by:
Dietzsch
()
Date: April 09, 2001 12:47PM
<HTML>The whole story: Dirk-Jan abbreviates as D.J. > Deejay. Short for Deejay is Deej. Pronounce Dietzsch.
In Dutch \'van\' or \'van de\' or \'van der\' does not automatically mean nobility, it most often indicates the place where one\'s ancestors came from. \'van Nijmegen\' would be \'from N.\' But that\'s not written in stone either. \'van der Duim\' means \'from the thumb\'. I have no clue what my great-great-great-great-grandpa was thinking of.
One thing\'s for sure: no nobility in my family...
A lot of Dutch names are a bit weird anyway. When Napoleon Bonaparte decided to occupy our little country, short before the 19th century, he decided everyone should have a last name. As almost everyone was just called something like \'Piet, son of Jan\' a lot of people decided to call themselves Piet Jansen. Some adopted the name of their profession. (Jan de Boer \'John the Farmer\' or Piet Molenaar \'Pete the Miller\'). There were also people who thought this last name thing would go away again and therefor adopted a silly name. \'Naaktgeboren\' = born naked. \'Pannekoek\' = Pancake.
As far as nobility is concerned:
Only if the place where the person is residing is given as well, like in \'van Nijmegen tot Amsterdam\' (\'from Nijmegen at Amsterdam\') the person is of noble blood. A very very rare thing indeed. Most official \'noble\' persons nowadays have double last names. Like our Queen, who\'s called \'van Oranje - Nassau\'.
Not very U-boat related, this thread. Just can\'t help myself sometimes</HTML>
In Dutch \'van\' or \'van de\' or \'van der\' does not automatically mean nobility, it most often indicates the place where one\'s ancestors came from. \'van Nijmegen\' would be \'from N.\' But that\'s not written in stone either. \'van der Duim\' means \'from the thumb\'. I have no clue what my great-great-great-great-grandpa was thinking of.
One thing\'s for sure: no nobility in my family...
A lot of Dutch names are a bit weird anyway. When Napoleon Bonaparte decided to occupy our little country, short before the 19th century, he decided everyone should have a last name. As almost everyone was just called something like \'Piet, son of Jan\' a lot of people decided to call themselves Piet Jansen. Some adopted the name of their profession. (Jan de Boer \'John the Farmer\' or Piet Molenaar \'Pete the Miller\'). There were also people who thought this last name thing would go away again and therefor adopted a silly name. \'Naaktgeboren\' = born naked. \'Pannekoek\' = Pancake.
As far as nobility is concerned:
Only if the place where the person is residing is given as well, like in \'van Nijmegen tot Amsterdam\' (\'from Nijmegen at Amsterdam\') the person is of noble blood. A very very rare thing indeed. Most official \'noble\' persons nowadays have double last names. Like our Queen, who\'s called \'van Oranje - Nassau\'.
Not very U-boat related, this thread. Just can\'t help myself sometimes
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