Dutch or Latin names

Genealogy is all about names: first names or given names, family names or surnames. When you are reading old documents, you will find ‘obscure’ names; names that nowadays are very, very uncommon. These ‘lost’ names are often difficult to read, because they do not make sense to us anymore. But what if a priest or a scholar translated such an ‘obscure’ name into Latin? How would the name be written then?

Heribert Rosweyde

Lists of Dutch names and their Latin equivalents can be found on the internet. By accident I came across such a list in the archives of the Roman Catholic parish of Saint Clemens in Minderhout, Belgium. The list has the year 1647 on it. The heading says that this is a list of “a few obscure Flemish names translated into Latin by the Rev. Heribert Rosweyde”. To be honest, I never heard of this Jesuit hagiographer before, but Wikipedia has a page on him and his work. According to this text, Rosweyde died in 1629. This makes me believe that the priest in Minderhout made notes in 1647 based on a work by Rosweyde.

I have transcribed the list and posted it here so that everyone can see how this priest in 1647 dealt with Flemish (similar to Dutch) names and their Latin equivalents. A list like this is helpful in two ways. In Roman Catholic parish registers the Latin variants will always have been used. Whereas in other Dutch records the same person will be mentioned with his/her ‘real’ name. In addition, the Dutch first names may have lead – through the use of patronymics – to surnames. This list may show you first names, that look similar to family names. You then know that you are – most likely – dealing with patronymic names.

A few notes.

• This is the list as drawn up in 1647. Names may be missing, there may be references to names that others would not use as such. The original author is reponsible for this, I am not.
• I tried to write the letters I/J and U/V as much as possible, as in the present day. In old manuscripts these are often used interchangeably.
• In my transcription the letter Y is always spelled as IJ.
• The paper is damaged in a few places, so not all letters or names are legible. I have indicated that with [..].

List of names

Final words

I realize that this is a long list of names. Nevertheless, I hope that it is useful for those of you who are working with old Dutch documents. And perhaps, even for others who need Latin translations for certain names. Please let me know, if you have made use of the list!