Why Early Modern (1500–1800) Dutch people have such weird names

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_der_Neederlanden#/media/File:Map_-_Special_Collections_University_of_Amsterdam_-_OTM-_HB-KZL_I_2_A_6_(08).jpg

If you spend time looking at early modern history articles on Wikipedia, you will see how Dutch people have one of the weirdest names.

Latinized names:

Erasmus, Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus#/media/File:Holbein-erasmus.jpg

The Dutch somehow Latinize their names to prove legitimacy. They did this more than other nations because other countries usually have strict naming conventions in that you can’t have weird names. The Dutch didn’t have this convention and went wild. They usually used Latin names to sound more intellectual.

The names on the right hand side represents either a Dutchified version of their actual names or their original names

• Hendrik Trajectinus — Hendrik van Utrecht (Dutchified)
• Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus — Gerrit Gerritszoon (Original) Erasmus van Rotterdam (Dutchified)
• Gisbertus Voetius — Gijsbert Voet (Original)
• Hieronymus Bosch — Jeroen van Aken (Dutchified)
• Pibo Ovittius van Abbema — Pibo Ove van Abbem (Dutchified)
• Jacobus Arminius — Jakob Hermanszoon (Original)
• Gerardus Mercator — Gerard de Kremer (Original)
• Viglius Zuichemus Ab Aytta — Wigle van Aytta van Zwichem (Dutchified)
• Petrus Scriverius — Pieter Schrijver (Original)
• Justus Lipsius — Joest Lips (Original)
• Abraham Ortelius — Abraham Ortels (Dutchified)
• Hermannus Boerhaavius — Herman Boerhaave (Original)
• Hugo Grotius — Huig de Groot (Original)

Notes:

• [Trajectinus] is Latin for [of Utrecht] where [Trajectinum] is Utrecht, meaning the Dutch form is [van Utrecht]
• [Roterodamus] is Latin for [of Rotterdam], meaning the Dutch form is [van Rotterdam]. Gerrit Gerritszoon is their original name.
• [Hieronymus Bosch]’s actual name is [Jheronimus van Aken] but [Jheronimus] is the Latinized form of the Dutch [Jeroen], meaning Jerome
• [Pibo] is a Frisian name even though it looks Italian. This is because Frisian hasn’t undergone Germanic sound changes where many languages dropped final vowels
• [Mercator] is a Latin transliteration from Dutch [Kremer], meaning merchant

Weirdly romanized names:

Willem ‘s Gravesande, Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_%27s_Gravesande#/media/File:Gravesande.jpg

The Dutch didn’t have a naming convention unlike many other countries that enforced names to not look weird.

The names on the right are Dutchified orthographies applied

• Willem ‘s Gravesande — Willem des Gravesande
• Gerard ‘t Hooft — Gerard de Hooft
• Gysbert Japicx — Gijsbert van Jakob
• Claude Frederic t’Serclaes — Claude Frederik des Heer Klaas
• Jean Werner T’Serclaes, Tilly Marbais — Jan Verner des Heer Klaas van Tilly-Marbais

Notes:

[‘s] is an old Dutch contraction of [des], meaning [of the]

[‘t] is an old Dutch contraction of [des], meaning [of the]

t’Serclaes is a Flemish name an is a contraction of [des Heer Claes], meaning [of lord Nicholas], rendered in standard Dutch as [des Heer Klass]

Frisian Names:

Sicco van Goslinga, Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sicco_van_Goslinga.jpg

Frisian names are different from Dutch names because Frisian is a completely different language. The right side will be the Dutch rendition of these names

• Sicco van Goslinga — Zeger van Goslings
• Frederik Sirtema van Grovestins — Frederik Seertems van Grovestins
• Ygo Gales Galama — Eeger Galszoon van Galams
• Bocka Harinxma — Beck Haringer

Notes:

• [Sicco] actually is written as [Sikke] but this figure replaced it with [Sicco] to look more Latinized. [Zeger] is the Dutch equivalent
• [Sirtema] doesn’t have a Dutch equivalence
• [Ygo Gales Galama] doesn’t have a Dutch equivalence
• [Bocka Harinxma] doesn’t have a Dutch equivalence

Conclusion:

They’re weird because they don’t fit the Dutch language names like Maarten, Hendrik, Max, Anderszoon, etc. The Dutch named themselves weirdly as a badge of honor because having a unique name is considered to be a sign of nobility and flamboyance. We just think it’s weird because humans nowadays find weird names to be stupid. The Dutch didn’t; they found them to be cool.