CRIMINAL FAMILY NAMES IN THE LOW COUNTRIES Willy van Ryckeghem There exists in the Dutch language a rich variety of unflattering family names which find their origin in a criminal past. A famous French poet once said that we all have a prince and a hanged man among our ancestors. It is rare, however, that a criminal name becomes a family name. A shortlist includes such names as Boef (rogue), Deugniet (rascal), Loeder (scumbag), Moordenaar (murderer), Ploert (plod), Roover (robber) and Strooper (poacher). Most of them come from the Netherlands rather than Flanders. We will present them in roughly chronological order. A. DEROOVER (robber) De Roover appears very early in the province of Utrecht with Radboud I whose grandson Radboud II is governor of Amersfoort ca. 900. Amersfoort by night The early generations wore this surname as a badge of honor and it certainly did not stop them from marrying into prominent families such as those of Cuyck, Altena, Goor and Rhenen. Then, at Generation X, we notice that Arent changes his name to de Roever. This did not change much the pronunciation of this name, but its original meaning was gone. The family continued in Tiel and finally moved to Amsterdam where they reside until today. There exists an unrelated family called de Roovere, which descends from the noble family of Rode. Arnold III of Rode (1125-1180) was married to Mathilde of Landen and their son Edmont led a regiment in the service of the count Henri II of Cuyck in 1167. Arnold assembled so much booty during his campaign that he earned the nickname of de Roovere and his descendants changed their name to de Roovere van Rode. These were no ordinary small-time robbers of course, but plunderers, similar to the vikings of the ninth century. And clearly, there was no dishonor attached to this type of plunder. de Roovere van Rode B. DE STROOPER (poacher) The same cannot be said of the surname De Strooper, remnant from a time when hunting was reserved for the lord of a domain. When poachers were caught, they were treated as criminals, and sometimes hanged. Poaching was much more prevalent in Belgium than in the Netherlands, where there are fewer forests. As a result, we encounter more individuals by the name of De Strooper in Flanders than in the Netherlands. At Zele, near Geraardsbergen in the Flemish Ardennes, we encounter several families using that name. The Flemish Ardennes were historically part of the Kolenbranders forest, marked in green on the map below. At Zele, the prominent household of Laurent de Stroopere and Suzanna Jacobs produced a son Josse who became secretary of the Flanders Council in Madrid, instituted by Philip II in 15881. During his stay in Madrid he married Maria de Molina y Soto. Upon his return to Zele in 1635, he was appointed receiver of the royal domain of Dendermonde. This reminds us of the ancient idiom of “poacher turned gamekeeper” 2, (not to be taken literally in this case). Josse’s genealogy was as follows: Gilles de Stroopere x Catherine de Rycke Olivier x Jossine van Hecke Laurent x Suzanna Jacobs Josse x Maria de Molina y Soto Maria (Madrid 1632) x Laurent Anne 1 Geoffrey Parker : Philip II (1995) p. 26. 2 Cf. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus. C. BOEF (rogue) Ronn Boef presents a complete genealogy of the various branches of his family on the site genealogicus.nl . He insists that the original meaning of Boef was not pejorative, and referred to a packman in the army. He also mentions several transformations of the name into Bouff, Beuf, Boving, etc. There also exist variations such as Bouve in the French Westhoek (Morbecque) and Bouvere in West Flanders in the region of Bruges, but their connection to Boef has not been proven. D. DEUGNIET (rascal) Annigje Dingemans Deugniet married Arie Vlieguijt c. 1650. She died at Nieuwpoort in 1659. Her ascendants are not mentioned. The name Deugniet also appears in France, but is probably derived from a placename. E. SCHOFT (brute) Jannetgen Schoft, the daughter of Adam Schoft and Lijsbeth Everts was baptized in 1648 at Woerden. Three years later, her brother William was baptized in the same church. In 1660, Baertje Schoft married Dirck Kees at Enkhuizen. In 1682, John de Schoft, the son of Karel de Schoft and Lijsbeth Cornelis, was baptized at Haarlem. In 1682, Juriaen van der Schoft was buried at Utrecht. In 1740, Andries Schoft was buried at Bergen-op-Zoom. In 1780, Georg Paulus Schoft married Petronella Ingels in Rotterdam In 1856, William Schoft, the son of William Schoft and Adriana of Teefelen, was born in Rotterdam. There were clearly quite a few schofts in the Netherlands, but apparently they were unrelated. E. MOORDENAAR (murderer) In 1835 John de Graaf married Aaltje Moordenaar in Winkel. Her ascendants are not mentioned anywhere. Conclusion Criminal family names were not uncommon in the Low Countries. Some even belonged to nobility. Surprise?