Van (Dutch)

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The correct title of this article is van. The initial letter is capitalised due to technical restrictions.

van is a preposition — specifically, a "tussenvoegsel" — in the Dutch language, meaning 'of' or 'from', and a common prefix in Dutch surnames (sometimes pronounced von), as in Vincent van Gogh or George Vancouver, Variations are van de, van der and van den. 'Van' is semantically related to the German 'von'. Unlike the German 'von', the Dutch 'van' is not an indication of nobility.

In Dutch, names starting with 'van' are filed under the initial letter of the following name proper, so van der Waals is filed under 'w', thus; Waals, van der, Johannes.

Capitalisation of the initial 'v' varies. In Dutch names it is written in lower case, with two exceptions, at the beginning of a sentence or if the first name or initials are omitted, in which case it is capitalised, as in 'de schilder Van Gogh' ('the painter Van Gogh'). However, in practice the latter rule is not always followed. And in Belgium they are always written in lowercase. In some anglicised names (e.g. Dick Van Dyke, Martin Van Buren) or in the case where the word is not of Dutch origin, as in Vietnamese names (e.g. Duong Van Minh, Nguyen Van Thieu) it is always capitalised. In terms like van der Waals radius the 'v' is usually not capitalised.

The prefixes are in some names concatenated to each other or even to the name proper, as in Vandervelde.

Other Dutch name prefixes are de, meaning 'the', and ter.

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