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The term ''von'' () is used in
German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...
surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble
patrilineality Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...
, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means ''of'' or ''from''. Nobility directories like the ''
Almanach de Gotha The ''Almanach de Gotha'' (german: Gothaischer Hofkalender) is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First publish ...
'' often abbreviate the noble term ''von'' to ''v.'' In medieval or early modern names, the ''von'' particle was at times added to commoners' names; thus, ''Hans von Duisburg'' meant "Hans from he city of
Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
". This meaning is preserved in Swiss
toponymic surname A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name.
s and in the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
or
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
'' van'', which is a cognate of ''von'' but does not indicate nobility.


Usage


Germany and Austria

The abolition of the
monarchies A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), ...
in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in 1919 meant that neither state has a privileged nobility, and both have exclusively republican governments. In Germany, this means that legally ''von'' simply became an ordinary part of the surnames of the people who used it. There are no longer any legal privileges or constraints associated with this naming convention. According to German alphabetical sorting, people with ''von'' in their surnames – of noble or non-noble descent alike – are listed in
telephone book A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...
s and other files under the rest of their names (e.g., the economist
Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and Sociology, sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberali ...
would have been found under ''M'' in the phone book rather than ''V''). In Austria, in contrast, not only were the privileges of the nobility abolished, their
title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...
s and prepositions were abolished as well in 1919. Thus, for example, ''Friedrich von Hayek'' became simply
Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
. (See also Austrian nobility on this issue.) In contrast to the peerage of the United Kingdom, the aristocracies of the German-speaking countries were held to include untitled nobility, although the names of nearly all the families falling into this category did include ''von'', '' zu'', ''von und zu'', ''von der'', ''von dem'', ''zum'', ''vom und zum'' or ''zur''.


Non-noble use

The preposition originated among German speakers during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
and was commonly used to signify a person's origins, appending the name of the place they originated from (see
toponymic surname A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name.
), or the name of their parents, as the concept of a surname did not start to come into common usage until later on. Nevertheless, it was mostly aristocrats and other land owners who acquired a surname consisting of ''von'', ''zu'' or ''zur'' and a
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
. When families were raised to nobility later on, the prefix was added in front of their existing name whatever its source, e.g. '' von Goethe''. In some cases, even an existing non-noble ''von'' became noble, or vice versa, therefore the same surname sometimes would be shared by noble and non-noble individuals. Especially in the Northwest (Bremen, Hamburg, Holstein, Lower Saxony, Schleswig, Westphalia) and in German-speaking Switzerland, ''von'' is a frequent element in non-noble surnames."Adelszeichen und Adel: Kennzeichnet das 'von' in jedem Fall eine Adelsfamilie?"
obiliary particle and nobility: Does the "von" indicate a noble family in every case? Institut Deutsche Adelsforschung nstitute of German Nobility Research retrieved on 8 January 2013.
About 200 to 300 known non-noble surnames contain the element ''von''. On the other hand, especially in Lower Saxony, several prominent noble surnames do not contain the particle ''von'', e.g. ', ' or ''
Vincke Vincke or von Vincke is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Georg von Vincke (1811–1875), Prussian politician, officer, landowner and aristocrat of the Vincke family The House of Vincke is the name of an old Westphalian noble ...
''."Nichtadeliges 'von' "
on-noble "von" adelsrecht.de, retrieved on 8 January 2013.
In order to distinguish the noble ''von'' from the non-noble one, the Prussian military abbreviated it to ''v.'' in noble names, often without a space following it, whereas the non-noble ''von'' was always spelled in full. In the 19th century in Austria and Bavaria, non-noble surnames containing ''von'' were widely altered by compounding it with the main surname element, such as ''von Werden → Vonwerden''. "Untitled" and "non-noble" are not synonyms in the German-speaking world. However, most German nobles used ''von'' and most users of ''von'' were noble. Nonetheless, desiring to add cachet to their perceived lineages in the era since titles of nobility were abolished, some individuals of no titled descent chose to add the particle to their name, such as movie directors Josef von Sternberg, Erich von Stroheim, and
Lars von Trier Lars von Trier ('' né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nomina ...
.


Ancient nobility

Some very old noble families, usually members of the ''
Uradel (, German: "ancient nobility"; adjective or ) is a genealogical term introduced in late 18th-century Germany to distinguish those families whose noble rank can be traced to the 14th century or earlier. The word stands opposed to '' Briefadel'', ...
'', bear surnames without the rather young nobiliary particle ''von'' but are nevertheless still noble. Also, a very few German families were elevated to the nobility without use of the preposition ''von''. This was the case of the
Riedesel Riedesel is a German noble family that began to appear in legal documents in the early 13th century. They were of the knightly class, though not all had the official status of ''Ritter'' or knight. Its exact geographical and temporal origins are ...
''Freiherren zu Eisenbach'' who received baronial dignity in 1680. In order to distinguish themselves from bearers of regionally frequent non-noble surnames containing ''von'', nobles in Northern Germany continue the royal Prussian military practice of abbreviating the noble ''von'' to ''v.'' but spelling the non-noble ''von'' in full.


Russia

Generally, the growth of the
Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...
into the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
was accompanied by the inflow of German surnames. Two main channels of such migration were the absorption of territories where Germans constituted a part of local nobility, such as
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, and the Baltic region, and the state-supported immigration of Germans into Russia, such as the ''
Volga Germans The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...
''. As a rule, the members of the local nobility who found themselves in Russia as a result of geopolitical shifts preserved their privileges in the Empire. Their surnames were listed in the State Register of Noble Families as soon as the required documents were provided. The particle ''von'' was preserved as well; once
hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes ( figure ...
s came into common use in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was used to connect the ''von'' with the following part of the surname (e.g. russian: Фон-Визин, von-Wiesen). However, since the twentieth century the particle has been written separately, as in the German origin. In the Baltic region, the German language continued to be used alongside Russian, so the language environment was friendly enough there to keep these surnames from localisation. Meanwhile, some of those whose ancestors individually entered the Russian service from abroad, and who settled themselves in Moscow or the core Russian provinces, sooner or later found it easier to adjust their surnames to the local speaking mode. However, unlike immigrants to English-speaking countries during the 18th to 20th centuries, who usually lost their nobility particles and often simplified and anglicised the remaining parts of their surnames, immigrants to the Tsarist and Imperial Russia did not lose their noble particles, although some of their core surnames may have experienced some minor changes. At the end of the 16th century, after the
Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pr ...
,
Ivan IV of Russia Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Iva ...
invited Baron Berndt von Wiesen () from the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword The Livonian Brothers of the Sword ( la, Fratres militiæ Christi Livoniae, german: Schwertbrüderorden) was a Catholic military order established in 1202 during the Livonian Crusade by Albert, the third bishop of Riga (or possibly by Theoderi ...
into Russian service and granted him some
landed property In real estate, a landed property or landed estate is a property that generates income for the owner (typically a member of the gentry) without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate. In medieval Western Europe, there were two compet ...
. In the 17th century his descendants wrote their surnames as russian: Фон Висин, links=no (which preserved the German spelling rather than the ). Circa 1660 one of them added''-ov'' (russian: Фон Висинов, links=no, ), yet in the 18th century this suffix was lost, and the middle consonant changed again ''s''→''z'' (russian: Фон-Визин, links=no, which preserves the German pronunciation rather than spelling: ). Finally, in the 18th century Ivan Fonvizin decided to merge the particle ''von'' with the core, thus giving a start to a new Russian family of German origin. His son,
Denis Fonvizin Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (russian: Денис Иванович Фонвизин; —) was a playwright and writer of the Russian Enlightenment, one of the founders of literary comedy in Russia. His main works are two satirical comedies, one of th ...
(russian: Фонви́зин, links=no, ) became a playwright whose plays are staged today.


Nordic countries

In the Nordic countries, ''von'' is common but not universal in the surnames of noble families of German origin and has occasionally been used as a part of names of ennobled families of native or foreign (but non-German) extraction, as with the family of the philosopher
Georg Henrik von Wright Georg Henrik von Wright (; 14 June 1916 – 16 June 2003) was a Finnish philosopher. Biography G. H. von Wright was born in Helsinki on 14 June 1916 to Tor von Wright and his wife Ragni Elisabeth Alfthan. On the retirement of Ludwig Wittgenste ...
, which is of Scottish origin, or as with the family of the painter
Carl Frederik von Breda Carl Frederik von Breda (16 August 1759 – 1 December 1818) was a Swedish painter who studied in and spent much of his career in Britain before becoming painter to the Swedish court. He was born in Stockholm in 1759, and moved to Britain wher ...
, who was of Dutch ancestry.


Capitalization


In German

The German dictionary ''
Duden The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years. , ...
'' recommends capitalizing the prefix ''von'' at the beginning of the sentence, but not in its abbreviated form, in order to avoid confusion with an abbreviated first name. However the Swiss '' Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' style guide recommends omitting the ''von'' completely at the beginning of the sentence. Examples, meaning "Von Humboldt came later.": * ''Duden'' styles: "''Von Humboldt kam später''." and "''v. Humboldt kam später.''" * ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' style: "''Humboldt kam später.''"


References

{{reflist German words and phrases