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Deleted user
28 Jul 2015
Closed question
Question about Dutch
What does Voorletters mean?
What does Voorletters mean?
Often I see the section to put this "voorletters" in the required field for example when ordering something online. The Englihs translation is "initials" but I wonder if it means the first letter of first name or last name or both. Because there always follows a field to put my last name ("Achternaam") and I feel strange to put the initial of my first name and of my last name then to put my last name.
What does "voorletters" mean to my name? I have only two names. The given name and the family name. No middle name, no christian name, no spanish name, no Hubert who has the longest name in the world, just two.
What would "voorletters" be for me? My name is Barak Obama, for example.
Also, for "tussenvoegsel", since I don't have any middle name or "van" in my name, can I just leave it emtpy?
What does "voorletters" mean to my name? I have only two names. The given name and the family name. No middle name, no christian name, no spanish name, no Hubert who has the longest name in the world, just two.
What would "voorletters" be for me? My name is Barak Obama, for example.
Also, for "tussenvoegsel", since I don't have any middle name or "van" in my name, can I just leave it emtpy?
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28 Jul 2015
Featured answer
- Dutch
- English (UK)
Yes, 'voorletters' refers to the initials of all your given names. Barak Obama is actually called Barack Hussein Obama, so his initials would be B.H. :-) The first letter of your family name is NOT part of your 'voorletters'.
If you only have one given name (like most Japanese people, I expect), then you only have one initial. I expect Dutch people on average have two given names, so two 'voorletters'.
'Tussenvoegsel' refers to the small word(s) that precede a lot of Dutch family names. They are usually prepositions and articles, and are written in small case.
Examples:
de, van, 't, van 't (literally: the, of, the, of the)
Note that if somebody's last name is 'de Boer' (literally: the Farmer) we would think of their last name starting with a B, because we ignore the 'tussenvoegsel' when alphabetising.
Highly-rated answerer
Read more comments
- Dutch
- English (UK)
Yes, 'voorletters' refers to the initials of all your given names. Barak Obama is actually called Barack Hussein Obama, so his initials would be B.H. :-) The first letter of your family name is NOT part of your 'voorletters'.
If you only have one given name (like most Japanese people, I expect), then you only have one initial. I expect Dutch people on average have two given names, so two 'voorletters'.
'Tussenvoegsel' refers to the small word(s) that precede a lot of Dutch family names. They are usually prepositions and articles, and are written in small case.
Examples:
de, van, 't, van 't (literally: the, of, the, of the)
Note that if somebody's last name is 'de Boer' (literally: the Farmer) we would think of their last name starting with a B, because we ignore the 'tussenvoegsel' when alphabetising.
Highly-rated answerer
Deleted user
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.
By the way, I've heard that the Dutch names that has "van" means the person is from higher social class. Is that true, or how much is it so in modern Dutch society?
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