by Willem Meiners
THE MORE than 40,000 families in the US bearing the name Jansen, Janssen or Janssens – they’re all of Dutch origin. So are the 20,000 DeVries or De Vries households, as well as the 2,000 families DeBruin, 2,000 families DeZwart, 2,500 families Groen, and 5,500 households named Orange or Oranje. And, mind you, also the 35,000 DeWitt families.
But those are all obvious names, much like the 19,000 VanDyke and VanDyck families in the US. Two waves of immigrants arrived from Holland to America, the first in the 17th century, the other in the second half of the 19th century. Everyone knew someone who was a son of Jan, or someone who lived near a dam or a dike. And the Friesland province was one of the main suppliers of immigrants, so yes, naturally you’ll find that ancestry in American surnames.
BUT IF you really want to see how broad the background is of Dutch people who crossed the Atlantic, simply look at the street where you live or used to live in the Netherlands. In my case: I grew up in Soest, on Aagje Dekenlaan. And I remember the neighbors from my childhood: Middelman, Schakel, Weeda, Van den Braak, Van der Leck, De Graaf, Van Zeist, Boersma, Van Herwaarden. They all lived on the other side of the street. And Army officer Koopman, of course. My brother married his oldest daughter.
On our side: Van de Flier, Van der Plas, Kamphorst, Knetemann, Lantema, Schanstra, Oorthuys, Van der Gaast, Elzinga, Houkes. You can’t make it more random. I asked myself the question: did names like that also emigrate to America? Not the neighbors themselves, but any close or distant relatives? Sure enough. Jordan Schakel plays basketball at the Boston Celtics, Larry Weeda has, or at least had, an auction house in Iowa, plumber Van den Braak repairs water pipes in Delaware, and Gladys Schanstra is an interior designer in Illinois.
AT HARVARD, Tjerk van Herwaarden coaches the field hockey women. Valerie Oorthuys designs zoning plans in Massachusetts, Ken Elzinga teaches economics and writes crime novels in Virginia, and John Knetemann is a computer geek in Colorado, but would really rather be a standup comedian. And Officer Koopman? There’s a Koopman Avenue running through Santa Cruz in California, a Koopman Road in Michigan and Texas, Koopman Drive runs through South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois, and Iowa has a Koopman Court.
I could go down the entire street of my childhood years, and I would probably find every neighbor’s surname somewhere in America. So I did, out of curiosity, and again, sure enough. Bert VandeFlier died recently in North Carolina, Jake VanderPlas works at Google in Seattle, Deb VanderGaast is running for office in Iowa, Alice Kamphorst treats cancer patients in New York, and Geert Middelman runs automation at Walmart headquarters in Arkansas. And so further, and so on. Everyone from my childhood, and guaranteed yours too, has a namesake or relative somewhere in America, including my next-door neighbor girl Kathy Lantema who married Ajax and Dutch national team goalkeeper Piet Schrijvers: Glen Lantema owns a lot of land in Webster, New York.
America is orange, very orange, but more strikingly: it is also the land of you and your neighbors. There is no other country in the world where the Dutch have taken root so deeply and thoroughly. That includes Steven and Rudie Houkes of number 5, around the corner, both of whom courted my sister at number 22. Because Laurie Houkes does the bookkeeping for her husband Bill, and she does it in Florida.
My sister eventually made a choice and picked Ruud.
* Willem Meiners is the Editor of De Daily Dutchman.
