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In medieval or early modern names, the von particle was at times added to commoners' names; thus, Hans von Duisburg meant ' Hans from [the city of] Duisburg '. This meaning is preserved in Swiss toponymic surnames and in the Dutch van, which is a cognate of von but also does not necessarily indicate nobility.
The names of the most ancient nobility, the Uradel, but also names of some old untitled nobility, often do not contain either von or zu, such as Grote, Knigge or Vincke. [6] Conversely, the prefix von occurs in the names of 200 to 300 non-noble families, [7] much like van in the Netherlands.
von – "of", "from"; often a sign of nobility, but also just a geographical term of the name originated of a location. zu - ( German ) "at"; a sign of nobility, sometimes in the combination von und zu , meaning the noble family still owns the place of naming
Von is a Germanic-language preposition that approximately means of or from. When it prefixes a surname it is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence. When it prefixes a surname it is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence.
The preposition von ("of") was used to distinguish nobility; for example, if someone was baron of the village of Veltheim, his family name would be von Veltheim. In modern times, people who were elevated to nobility often had a 'von' added to their name. For example, Johann Wolfgang Goethe had his name changed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ...
Guido Mieth/Getty Images. This name of German origin has a strong sound and a meaning to match: “battle woman.” 21. Helga. Helga is an Old Norse name with a Germanic meaning of “holy ...
The common names Schmidt and Schmitz lead in the central German-speaking and eastern Low German-speaking areas. Meyer is particularly common in the Low German-speaking regions, especially in Lower Saxony (where it is more common than Müller). Bauer leads in eastern Upper German-speaking Bavaria. Rarer names tend to accumulate in the north and ...
Owing to its Flemish origin, the surname of Ludwig van Beethoven contains the prefix van, rather than (as might be expected of someone born in Bonn) its German equivalent von. van ( Dutch pronunciation: [vɑn] ⓘ ) is a very common prefix in Dutch language surnames , where it is known as a tussenvoegsel .