Quoting Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven <>:
> That's what you want, however, in the Netherlands the van part of the family
> name carries no meaning. Someone called Peter van Zandt would be sorted under
> the Z, not the V. And the same applies for some other countries. Take for
> an even nicer example a Dutch woman who married this Peter van Zandt: Ineke
> ten Bravoure-van Zandt. These so-called 'tussenvoegsels have no meaning when
> it comes to sorting. So if you would sort Peter van Zandt under the V, you'd
> boggle the minds of the Dutch readers at least. So they, as readers, would
> want that consistency intact. ;)
>
To add another twist: If the Dutch "van Halen" family migrates to the
US and rears two sons who are fairly proficient in the hard rock
business, they turn into "Van Halen"s that I'd expect to find sorted
under "V". Also, isn't the scientist Paul M. Vanhoutte likely to stem
from some "van Houtte" family? Apparently the interpretation of the
name parts depends on the cultural context, no matter what the name
originally meant to be.
regards,
Markus
--
Markus Hoenicka
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de
