When Dutch people arrived in the United States or other English-speaking countries, often their names got changed. This was either done on purpose, to make the name easier to write and remember, or by accident because the clerk didn't know how to spell the name and wrote it down phonetically. For this reason, a single family name can often be found in many different spellings in different documents.

This article gives an overview of the types of changes that names underwent and also gives a list of English versions of Dutch last names. This list is not complete and even for the names that are listed, chances are that many people with those names used even more exotic variants as well.

Common changes

Some of the Dutch names follow a predictable pattern when turned into English:

• Prefixes often get stuck to the name: ten Pas becomes Tenpas, de Jong becomes Dejong.
• Names ending in -ink sometimes change to -ing: Abbink becomes Abbing, Lansink becomes Lansing.
• V becomes F or PH: Veenhuis becomes Feenhouse, Vink becomes Fink or Phink.
• -kk- becomes -ck-: Blekkink to Bleckink.
• An open -e- becomes -a-: Resink to Rasink, Menink to Manink
• -els becomes -les: Wubbels becomes Wubbles.
• Parts of the name that are a noun are translated: -huis becomes -house, -kamp becomes -camp. For example 'Nijenhuis' becomes 'Newhouse'.
• Names derived from occupations get translated: Bakker becomes Baker, Kuiper becomes Cooper, Konings becomes King.

List of Americanizations

This list gives Dutch names and spellings of those Dutch names as encountered in American documents.

Last week, my friend Mary Risseeuw from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and I gave a presentation at the International Congress for genealogical and heraldic Sciences in Maastricht. The title was "We're all fresh and healthy. Emigration from the Netherlands to the United States in the 19th century. The slides are now available online.

I've just added a Dutch genealogy store to the site. In this store, visitors can buy books, DVDs and prints about Dutch genealogy, history and culture. I've selected publications that I think would benefit somebody researching his Dutch roots. The store is powered by Amazon. This website receives a commission for all sales, enabling this website to remain free.

Different regions in the Netherlands have different customs. This applies to Dutch surnames as well as to many other traditions. Some areas use suffixes that are typical of that region.

Knowing about the suffixes in Dutch family names can help you in trying to find out in which province to look for your ancestors. More information about regional customs can also be found in the articles about the different provinces in the Geography section.

Census records can be a great source of information because they list all the inhabitants of a house, usually one or more families together with their domestic staff. Since 1850, the Dutch census records form a continuous registration where you can find who lived where at all times.

Drenthe is a province in the north of the Netherlands. It borders on the province of Groningen in the North, Germany in the east, Overijssel in the south and Friesland in the west.

The capital city of Drenthe is Assen. Other large towns are:

• Emmen
• Hoogeveen
• Meppel

Jan Antonie Boerrigter emigrated to the United States in 1910 from Overijssel. Almost half a century later, he wrote to his aunt and uncle in the Netherlands. He shares much information about his family and is curious about the Netherlands.

One group of emigrants in the 18th century is known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. But did you know they weren't Dutch at all? Most Pennsylvania dutch are actually German or Swiss. But even though their ancestors were not from the Netherlands, many Pennsylvania Dutch used Dutch ports to travel to the United States so there is a Dutch connection.