Re: USAGE: Betreft: USAGE: surname prefixes

rnierse@anwb.nl writes:
>Hi Barry,
hello :)
>
>
>I'm sending you this off-list, because what I am going to
>tell you now is very tentative (I'm not good at Dutch etymology
>or names) and it's a bit off-topic.
>Wykert is a differtent spelling for Wijkert. The -ert or -erd ending
>normally indicates agent, but in this case there it could also mean
>'from'. A 'wijk' can be two things: a suburb or part of a town
>(German: Viertel).  A 'wijk' can also be a lower part in the landscape.
>Low because it is low from nature but also (and in most cases)
>because people dug away ground (or moor) (cf the Dutch
>placename Beverwijk etc.).
>So Wykert could mean "(from) the low parts".
Very interesting. We had always assumed that Wykert was a German surname
(but what did we know, no one speaks German in my family ;)). I find this
really interesting because it kind of changes how my family views our
ancestry. Although this doesn't really surprise me, The two families, the
Vanderwalls and the Wykerts  are mutual cousins (great grandma married my
great grandfather, and his brother married my great grandmother's sister
). So, I can see a cultural and probably linguistic reason for the two
families getting together.
>


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