Names
In the United States some English surnames were later given the preposition Van, such as in the case of Van Allen, Van Owen or Van Blake. Since Owen and Blake don't represent geographical locations, they are recognizable as not original Dutch "van" surnames. "Owen" is a Welsh cognate with Eugene meaning noble-born. "Blake" could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin.
Read more about this topic: Van (Dutch)
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“In a time of confusion and rapid change like the present, when terms are continually turning inside out and the names of things hardly keep their meaning from day to day, it’s not possible to write two honest paragraphs without stopping to take crossbearings on every one of the abstractions that were so well ranged in ornate marble niches in the minds of our fathers.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“All the names of good and evil are parables: they do not declare, but only hint. Whoever among you seeks knowledge of them is a fool!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“All nationalisms are at heart deeply concerned with names: with the most immaterial and original human invention. Those who dismiss names as a detail have never been displaced; but the peoples on the peripheries are always being displaced. That is why they insist upon their continuity—their links with their dead and the unborn.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)