Five Brothers and a War

Dutch Naming Protocols—Given Names

The formalized rules that became extremely commonplace were: • The first-born son was to be named after his paternal grandfather

• The first-born daughter was to be named after her maternal grandmother • The second-born son was to be named after his maternal grandfather • The second-born daughter was to be named after her paternal grandmother • Any other children were usually named after their uncles and aunts. • If a child died, the next child born with the same gender would take on the same name as the deceased child. • If a mother died in giving birth to a girl, the girl would be given the mother’s name. The latest phase in Dutch naming conventions developed after World War II, when people became far less religious, and therefore the traditional names moved out of vogue. Modern names were developed, having no ties to the names of relatives, much less religion. In previous years, there was a movement to create names phonetically, such as converting the French name “Jeanne” to “Sjaan”, or “Jacques” to “Sjaak”. This movement picked up strength as the post-war Dutch language itself was made more phonetic and simple through wholesale changes to spellings.

holland

Five Brothers and a War

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