Patronymics (Dutch: patroniemen)
First I'll introduce the term:
A patronymic is something that was often used before the existence of the 'last name'.
For instance, my first name is 'Eesger' and the name of my father was 'Willem'. So if I was born in The Netherlands before the year 1811 I would have been known as 'Eesger Willems' (short for Eesger, son of Willem)
The patronymic was often (but not always!) written down on the birth certificate. And almost always mentioned later on in life (upon marriage, christening, death etc)
Now the interesting part:
In my opinion the patronymic is a predecessor of the last name made obligatory by Napoleon in the early 18-hundreds in The Netherlands. But it absolutely isn't the same as the last name, but is also absolutely not a second first name. Also (as mentioned) the patronymic isn't always mentioned in the birth certificate.
Thus chances are good the patronymic isn't very well used here at WikiTree.
In my opinion there should be an extra field included in WikiTree for the patronymic.
This because, when the distinction is made, it seriously helps defining the person as it helps in making the person unique. Just as the last name does, but in a bit more "loosely" kind of way (as the patronymic changes ;)
I am building a genealogy program, and the "find doubles" function seriously improved when I started using a separate field for the patronymic, so I think it would improve WikiTree also.
On 26 Mar 2023 Ludwig Kraayenbrink wrote on Toering-99:
Hi Eesger, Thanks for your email. The patroniem in dutch names I only enter then if they are part of the burth record and this I entered in the "Proper First Name" field e.g. "Ale Jacobs". In the "Preferred Name" field I enter "Ale". The "Last name at birth" field is "Toering". I understand when a dutch female marries the person e.g. Grietje Touring keeps her maiden name so the "Current Last Name" field is "Toering" and not her husband surname. Hope this helps. Ludwig - Wikitree greeter volunteer