Database of Surnames in The Netherlands

Name 
Visser
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Canter Visscher (-)
Fischer
Visker
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kenmerken:
beroepsnaam
oude spelling adaptatie Duitse naam

specifieke componenten:

er geen affix

beroepsnaam

Deze categorie bevat de familienamen die berusten op de woordcategorie die met de Latijnse term 'nomina agentis' wordt aangeduid: woorden die van werkwoorden zijn afgeleid en handelende personen aanduiden. In de naamkunde is de term beroepsnaam ingeburgerd, maar die is strikt genomen niet helemaal dekkend. Tot deze categorie worden ook namen gerekend die aangeven wat iemand (wel eens of gewoonlijk) doet, maar daarmee niet per se zijn brood verdient.
Maar de term beroepsnaam overtreft het nomen agentis met namen op -man, zoals Koopman en Appelman (appelhandelaar), en nog een aantal namen die van oorsprong geen handeling belichamen.
De zogenaamde indirecte of metonymische beroepsnamen, zoals Brood voor 'bakker' en Appel voor 'appelhandelaar' (één van de mogelijkheden), rekenen we niet tot deze categorie.
Wel zijn in deze categorie ook de 'standsnamen' ondergebracht, zoals Burger, De Poorter, De Ridder, Knaap, Meijer (vgl. dts. Standesname).

• "Onder beroepsnamen verstaat men die familienamen waarvan het voorstadium oorspronkelijk iemands beroep, ambt of rang binnen een beroep aanduidde, dus familienamen als Bakker, Boerrigter en Vaandrager" [Ebeling-1993, p 134].
• "In het Oudgermaans werden nomina agentis gevormd met het suffix -(j)an, dat in het Middelnederlands -e werd, bijv. Middelnederlands hertoge '(letterlijk) legeraanvoerder', Nederlands bode, Middelnederlands kempe 'kamper, vechter', schenke 'schenker', scutte 'schutter' (Duits Schütze), Middelnederlands herde 'herder'. Toen het suffix -e niet meer distinctief was, werd het vervangen door -er, -aar" ['Taalkundige termen', in: ..., p. 38].
• [J.B. Glasbergen, Beroepsnamenboek. Nederlandse beroepsnamen vóór 1900, Amsterdam-Antwerpen (Veen) 2004].
• Occupational and Status Names - Many persons were distinguished by their craft or trade, by their status, or just by something they used to do for a living. Typical village names are De Boer ('the farmer'), Molenaar, Muller, or Mulder ('miller'), Ackerman ('farmer, plowman'), Ploeger ('plowman'), Scheper ('shepherd'), and Smit ('smith', very common in urban communities as well). A much greater quantity and variety of occupational names arose in cities and market towns. The food, drinks, and hospitality trade produced many a fisherman or fishmonger (Visser), baker (Bakker), brewer (Brouwer), grower and trader of barley and other ingredients (Gorter), butcher (Flemish Vleeschouwer), cook (Kok), and innkeeper (De Waard), and some of these would also be found in villages. The waghenare 'carter' (see Wagenaar) and the Rademaker('wheelwright') were essential for transportation of goods and people, as was many a boatman and ship-master, giving rise to Schipper and Schipman (perhaps Americanized in the US as Shipman). Some of the pre-eminent industries of Flanders and the Netherlands were the wool, weaving, and garment trades, represented, for example, in Voller ('fuller'), Spinder ('spinner'), Wever ('weaver'), Verwer ('dyer'), Bleeker 'bleacher', De Schepper ('tailor') and Snyder (also 'tailor'). Dhuyvetter ('the tanner') provided treated hide for the leather trade which in turn produced shoes (from the Schoenmaker) and all sorts of equipment such as saddles from the Zadelaar (Sadler) and horse-collars and harnesses (from the Hamaker). The Timmerman ('carpenter'), the Dekker ('roofer') and the Metselaar ('mason') would have been some of the key workers in urban house-building, while the Glaser ('glass-maker') would have provided windows for higher-class houses and churches. Men named Potter ('maker of vessels in clay or metal') and Messer ('knife-maker, cutler') supplied essential articles for cooking and eating. Koopman ('merchant') was inevitably a relatively common surname in the main towns, relating to the import and export of many kinds of merchandise, especially wool, cloth, spices, and wine, along with Kramer ('trader'), Manger ('market trader)' and Marsman ('traveling salesman'). At the luxury end of the market was also the Goldsmit (see Goldsmith). These represent only a small glimpse of the hundreds of specialized occupations that flourished in the main towns, where we also find the status names Burger ('citizen, freeman of a borough') and Baas ('master, overseer', the source of
the American English word boss). From the halls and entourage of the nobility, gentry, and burgers come a number of surnames such as Drost ('head of court'), Schenk ('wine server, butler'), Jonker ('young nobleman, squire'), De Jager ('the hunter'), and a bevy of entertainers, some of whom may have been itinerant, while others were permanent employees of a court or town: Pyper, Sanger ('singer'), Trompeter ('trumpeter'), Tamboer ('drummer'), Speelman ('musician, jester, juggler'), Guichelaar, Keukelaar, or Kockler ('juggler, magician'), and Springer ('jumper, vaulter, acrobat'). It is fitting to conclude this brief survey of Dutch occupations with the clerk (whence De Klerk, Flemish De Clerck), without whom we would have no
written records from which to learn the history of Dutch family names.
From the examples given it will be evident that most occupational surnames are formed either from a noun or verb denoting the product or activity plus the agent suffix -er/-aar or from a compound of two nouns, the second being an agent noun such as -man, -maker, -smit(h), -houwere 'hewer, cutter', and so on. The definite article belonging to the older forms of these surnames sometimes survives in the modern name but is often dropped [Leendert Brouwer & Peter McClure, 'Dutch family names', in: DAFN (preface of the revised second edition of the Dictionary of American Family Names, edited by Patrick Hanks, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2022 --- https://www.cbgfamilienamen.nl/nfb/documenten/DAFN%202,%20ESSAY,%20Dutch%20names.pdf)].

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