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Archiver > BELGIUM-ROOTS > 1998-11 > 0909956407


From: Marcel CoumontBeisig <>
Subject: Re: D'HONDT
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 13:40:07 -0800 (PST)


On Sun, 1 Nov 1998, Picavet wrote:

> At 02:15 +0100 31-10-1998, John A Buytaert wrote:
> >Does anyone know the meaning of the surname D'Hondt?
> >John B.
>
>
> Dog.
>
> Compare "hound".
>
> Either as a term of abuse, or derived from the name of a house. BTW: in
> earlier times, many important and even less important houses had a name,
> not a number.
>

I used to have a Dutch friend with the name den Hond. She told me that the
family had acquired the name when the French were in power in the
Netherlands following the French revolution and required everyone to have
a surname and to register it. Ancestor thought it was a big joke to
register under the name `the Dog' and that after the French were gone
everybody would go back to the good ol' days when one didn't need a
surname. Little did he realize that good ol' days never return. Granted
this may all be apocryphal.

Keep well,

Marcel.

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