Belgian family names

It is estimated that there are some 190,000 family names in Belgium for 10 million inhabitants, giving a ration of 1 family name for 53 people in average. This is one of the highest ratio in the world. In comparison, there are only between 700 and 3,500 Han surnames in all China, for 1.3 billion people ! The most common family name in Belgium, Peeters, is only born by 0.3% of the population.

Traditional family names in Belgium, as opposed to those immigrants, have numerous linguistic origins (French, Dutch/Flemish, German...) and can be classified in several categories of meaning :

• Surnames derived from given names
• Geographic origin
• Noble name tied to a village or town (fiefdom)
• Ancestor's occupation
• Ancestor's physical attribute
• Corruption of another name
• Unclear origin

Surnames derived from given names<

Some of the most common family names in Belgium are those inherited from an ancestor's given name. This is the most common type of surnames in many countries, like in Scandinavinan names (ending in "-son" or "-sen", also common in Northern England, due to the numerous Viking ancestries), Anglo-Saxon names (ending in "-s" like in Williams, Richards...), Spanish names (ending in "-ez") or many Arabic names (marked by a "bin" meaning "son of").

The Dutch/Flemish equivalent works the same way as the Anglo-Saxon's final "s" (e.g. Peeters, Martens, Wouters, Jacobs, Pauwels...), or occasionally like th Danish's "-sen", sometimes with a double "s" (e.g. Jansen or Janssen). Some final "-s" following a "k" sound have resulted in a final "-x" like in Hendrickx, Dierckx, Sterckx...

There are various French equivalents. The newest names have no suffix at all, so the surname is spelt exactly like the given name (e.g. Michel, Laurent, Henry...), which can be confusing.

Older names, from the 16th century of earlier, sound more Germanic, such as those ending in -mart, a Germanic suffix meaning "famous". For example : Wilmart, Gilmart, Jeanmart, Jamart, Jacquemart... Such names are especially common around Namur. Shortening and nicknames are also common for surnames derived from given names. This includes Colard, Collard, Collignon, Colson, Colot, Colet, Colette (from Nicolas), Gillard, Gilson, Gillot, Gillet (from Gilles), Piette, Pierson, Piret, Pirotte or Pirard (from Pierre), Jacquot, Jacquet, Jacquier, Jacquemin or Jacquard (from Jacques), and so on.

Over half of the 100 most common surnames nationwide belong to this category (see table below). In spite of that, only a moderate percentage of the total population bears such a name, due to the immense diversity of Belgian surnames, and the rather limited number of given names that have become surnames.

Surnames derived from geographic locations

The place of origin is indicated by van in Dutch and de (or occasionally du) in French, which means "from" or "of". Some places of origins are purely geographical, like in Japanese surnames. For example : "Vanden Bergh" in Flemish, or "Dumont" in French, mean "from the mountain"; "Vandenbosch" in Flemish, or "Dubois" in French, mean "from the wood/forest". Many Flemish names in "Van der" have been shortened as "Ver" (e.g. Vermeulen, Vermeersch, Verdonk...).

Most of the surnames (except the most common ones) in this category match a hamlet, village, town, city or region's name in the Benelux of France, which in most cases mean that the family was noble and ruled over the land of that area in medieval times (see Belgian noble families). Nobility has often been lost with time, or during the French Revolution, so that nowadays only names starting with a small, detached van or de (not a capitalised "Van" or "De") still indicate that the person is from a noble family. Some Dutch names in this category also start with "het" or the shortened form " 't ", while a few noble French names start with "le" or "la" (but more often "du" or "de la").

This is the category of patronymics with the greatest variety, as a result of the numerous place names.

Surnames derived from adjectives

Surnames often include a physical description. For example, 'Legros' in French, or 'De Groot' in Dutch, mean "the fat/big", while 'De Lange' (Dutch) and 'Legrand' (French) means "the tall". Some adjectives indicate a foreign origin, like 'Lallemand' or 'Lerusse', which mean respectively "the German" and "the Russian" in French.

Surnames derived from occupations

Some family names reflect the profession of the first ancestor to carry that name, like Timmerman in Dutch, or Carpentier in French, which both mean "carpenter", or 'De Bakker' (Dutch) and 'Boulanger', both meaning "baker".

Other surnames

In spite of all these possibilities, many surnames in Belgium have no clear meaning, unclear origins, or no meaning at all. Many Walloon surnames have medieval German origins and end in "-art" or "-ard". Others are deformations or heavy mispellings of other surnames. Variant of spelling and misspellings are very common due to the lack of standardised spelling rules in Dutch until recently, and even more so when dealing with medieval or Renaissance French.

List of the 100 most common Belgian family names in 2001 by region