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From: Ida Skarson McCormick <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Anglicizing Dutch Names
Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:55:53 -0800
References: <00b601c98898$e74560e0$b5d022a0$@net>
In-Reply-To: <00b601c98898$e74560e0$b5d022a0$@net>


Hi:

Have you considered transposing the vowels in Leo? That gives you
Lowie, a nickname for Lodewyk/Lodewijk in Dutch, derived from
Ludovicus in Latin. This Latin name gave rise to Ludwig in German
and Louis in French and English.

--Ida Skarson McCormick, , Seattle

At 12:24 PM 2/6/2009, Presbury \(Arizona\) <> wrote:
><snip>
>But wait ... that's only part of the story ... understanding that given name
>"Dirck" only opened the door. I hope we'll learn one day if the surname
>Lowe/Lowe has its own story to tell with its own set of cultural bias.
>
>It would seem at least some of Richard's children/descendants believed or
>came to believe he was of German heritage, and we find given names passed
>along in one branch Carl/Karl. We've found the appearance in the same
>families of a mysterious middle initial L.
>
>My grandfather happened to be one with this mysterious middle name that
>began with L., and he passed that "middle name" along to my Uncle Jack. As
>Jack (1904-1997) relayed, his father didn't know what true name was supposed
>to be and wasn't sure how it should properly be pronounced. According to
>Jack, it was a quandary for grandfather when of an age that someone required
>he disclose a "full" middle name on a form or application. To make a long
>story short, it became recorded first in someone else's hand as Leo. All my
>grandfather could tell my uncle was that it "wasn't Leo." Many years later
>when my uncle had reached a similar point in life, he discussed it with his
>father and opted to just write down "Leo" rather than argue that he couldn't
>really tell them what it was supposed to be. Thus we find a record here or
>there with the middle name Leo. "But all I know is that it begins with L and
>it isn't Leo," Uncle Jack (1904-1997) relayed at different times in his
>life.
>
>I continue on the trail, hoping one day to learn if that mysterious middle
>initial L. might have once have been a Germanic interpretation of the older
>Dutch family surname Lou/Low/Lowe--itself derived from a patronymic and
>thus, the given name "Laurens."
><snip>
>
>[3] A. Van Doren Honeyman, "Neshanic Reformed Church Baptismal Records,
>Early Records, 1762-1796," _Somerset County Historical Quarterly_, ongoing
>series beginning Volume I, No. 2 (April 1912) (Somerville, New Jersey :
>Somerset County Historical Society, April 1912); online transcribed digital
>edition by subscription, GenealogyLibrary.com
>(http://www.genealogylibrary.com : extracted 15 Jun 2007); the church
>baptism records were made in Dutch through the Revolutionary War, and were
>arranged earlier by date, the Quarterly editor (Honeyman) alphabetized the
>entries; the Low/Lowe baptisms were recorded under the surname Lou, even
>though Dirck Lowe's name appears elsewhere in the church records as Low
>and/or Lowe
>
>[4] I record Richard and Rebecca generally with the surname spelling Carle
>and hope one day to learn more of that surname's origins.

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