Van (Dutch)

''van'' () is a very common prefix in Dutch language surnames, where it is known as a . In those cases it nearly always refers to a certain, often quite distant, ancestor's place of origin or residence; for example, Ludwig ''van Beethoven'' "from Beethoven" (maybe Bettenhoven) and Rembrandt ''van Rijn'' "from the Rhine". ''Van'' is also a preposition in the Dutch and Afrikaans languages, meaning "of" or "from" depending on the context (similar to ''da'', ''de'', ''di'' and ''do'' in the Romance languages).

In surnames, it can appear by itself or in combination with an article (compare French ''de la'', ''du'', ''de l). The most common cases of this are ''van de'', ''van der'' and ''van den''''', where the articles are all current or archaic forms of the article ''de'' "the". Less common are ''van het'' and '''''van 't''''', which use the similar but grammatically neuter article ''het''. The contraction ''ver-'', based on ''van der'', is also common and can be written as a single word with the rest of the surname; an example being Johannes Vermeer (''van der meer'' "of the lake"). Provided by Wikipedia