If you are Dutch, is this true?

[rayrey10]

Came across this when I was reading the news. Is it true?

"When Napoleon seized the Netherlands in 1810, he demanded that all Dutchmen take last names, just as the French had done decades prior. Problem was, the Dutch had lived full and happy lives with single names, so they took absurd surnames in a show of spirited defiance. These included Naaktgeboren (born naked), Spring int Veld (jump in the field), and Piest (pisses). Unfortunately for their descendants, Napoleon’s last-name trend stuck, and all of these remain perfectly normal Dutch names today."

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20573.html

[grunau_baby]

Never heard of that one in my history lessons in dutch school, so I cannot confirm it. But concerning historical dutch mentality towards foreign occupations it could well be possible indeed:d

Moreover there are really some strange dutch family-names around: Verkoeijen (something like to "be-cow-ed"), doorenbosch (through the forest/bushes), den Eyl (the owl - this was a rather left-liberal dutch prime minister in the early 70s, in dutch children TV at that time there was a character, an owl - called "de eul" telling fairy tales. As a child I didn´t get the pun:d), etc.

Interesting!
Alex

[Willy]

When I was at Dutch language school, I was told pretty much the same story about the Dutch being forced to take surnames, but never heard of those names before.

[luckydog]

When I was in high-school I dated a French girl who's last name was "Lefleche" ( arrow ?? ) and a Dutch girl whose last name was " Titsaflopin".
Definite German influence there.

[Piglet]

I heard something similar more recently in Mongolia, gotta check on it.

[Shinden]

it's true. though we were under French rule from 1798, not 1810, till 1813. Besides an obligatory last name Napoleon also introduced military draft for men 18 years old, got rid of that anachronism only about 15 years ago. But it's true that quite a few people chose funny last-names as a protest against the french in general, and to this law in particular.

cheers,
S.

[jankees]

Napoleon also forced us to drive on the right side of the road. The UK was never occupied, so...
He also gave us the metric system (thanks!) and a complete legal system, our last Napoleonic law was only abolished this century..

[MarioS]

That is really hilarious, Im from south africa and you may or may not know that afrikaans people are decended from dutch and speak a similar language yet we somehow ended up with french surnames:icon_lol:( Le Roux, Du Plessis, etc), BTW that mental floss blog has some hilarious things like men breastfeeding, check it out!:jump::jump::jump:

[jankees]

That is really hilarious, Im from south africa and you may or may not know that afrikaans people are decended from dutch and speak a similar language yet we somehow ended up with french surnames:icon_lol:( Le Roux, Du Plessis, etc),

That is because the dutch had a lot of religious refugees from France. France, being catholic, didn't like the reformed French (also known as Huguenots) all that much and many of them ended up in the reformed Netherlands. That being a small and not that appealing country, many of those left for the (then) Dutch cape colony (now Capetown) and settled there. Hence the name Franschhoek (French corner) for a town close to the Cape. Funny detail, many of them came from what is now the Drome department in France, which almost a spitting image of the area surrounding Franschhoek, they must have felt right at home there!

[Panther_99FS]

Interesting history...

[Kofschip]

That story is true, including last names like "Naaktgeboren." However a large amount of Dutch people, mainly "upper" and "middle" class and guild members, in those days did already have a last name.

By the way MarioS, was it Pieter Marits who said: "Alles sal reg kom"?