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The van Surname

van Name Meaning and History

  1. Vietnamese: unexplained.
  2. Dutch (De Van): metonymic occupational name for a winnower or a maker of winnowing fans, from Middle Dutch van(ne) ‘fan’.
  3. English: Western English variant of Fann.
  4. Czech (Van): from a pet form of the personal name Václav, Old Czech Veceslav (see Vacek).
  5. Ukrainian: from a short form of the personal name Ivan, Slavic form of John.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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van Family Facts

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Distribution of van Families in the US in 1920
Number of van families
 47-92
 16-46		 1-15
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The van name in History

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