Tussenvoegsel

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A tussenvoegsel, in Dutch linguistics, is a word that is positioned between someone's first name and last name. In the English language, it is a "surname prefix"^[1] or may be referred to as an "independent prefix".^{[citation needed]} The most common tussenvoegsels are "van" (as in Dick van Dyke) and "de" (as in Klaas de Vries). Despite their commonality, many if not most Dutch surnames include no tussenvoegsel (as in Jan Peter Balkenende and Willem Kok).

In the Netherlands, these tussenvoegsels are strictly speaking not a part of someone's last name. For example, in the Dutch telephone directory the surname is "De Vries" is listed under "V", not "D". Therefore in Dutch databases tussenvoegsels are recorded separately. This often simplifies finding a Dutch surname in a Dutch database, because including the tussenvoegsel would result in many surnames being listed under "D" and "V". In Belgium (as Francophone surnames rarely have tussenvoegsels) surnames are collated with the full surname including tussenvoegsels. "De Clerck" comes before "Dossche".^{[citation needed]}

According to Dutch language rules in the Netherlands, the tussenvoegsel in a surname is written with a capital letter only when it is not preceded by a first name. So a Peter whose surname is "De Vries" will be referred to as either "meneer De Vries" (Mr. De Vries) or "Peter de Vries". In contrast, according to Dutch orthographic rules in Belgium, tussenvoegsels of surnames always keep their original orthography, as in meneer Van Der Velde, meneer P. Van Der Velde or Peter Van Der Velde.^{[citation needed]}

Tussenvoegsels originate from the time that Dutch last names officially came into use. Many of the names are place names, which refer to cities (Van Coevorden, for example) or geographical locations (such as Van den Velde, or "of the fields"). The following list of tussenvoegsels includes approximate translations, some of which have maintained their earlier meaning more than others.^{[citation needed]}

aan (at)
bij (near)
de (the)
den, der, d' (of the)
het, 't (the)
in (in)
onder (below)
op (on, at)
over (over, beyond)
's (of the)
te, ten, ter (of)
tot (till)
uit, uijt (out of)
van, vanden (of, of the)
voor (to)

Combinations of these words are also common:

aan de, aan den, aan der, aan het, aan 't
bij de, bij den, bij het, bij 't
boven d'
in de, in den, in der, in het, in 't
onder de, onder den, onder het, onder 't
over de, over den, over het, over 't
op de, op den, op der, op het, op 't, op ten
van de, van den, van der, van het, van 't, van ter
uit de, uit den, uit het, uit 't, uit ten
uijt de, uijt den, uijt het, uijt 't, uijt ten
ver (a contraction of van der)
voor de, voor den, voor in 't

[edit] References

^ PROZ (2002). Dutch term or phrase: tussenvoegsel - English translation: surname prefix (web). Web discussion on the Dutch term or phrase: tussenvoegsel, with references provided at "PROZ", the translation workplace.. PROZ. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.