What is "tussenvoegsel"

A tussenvoegsel in Dutch linguistics is a word that is positioned between a person's first and last name similar to Irish or Scottish surname prefixes, French particules or German von. The most common tussenvoegsels are "van" (as in Vincent van Gogh; see also van (Dutch)) meaning "from" and "de" (as in Greg de Vries), meaning "the". Other Dutch surnames include no tussenvoegsel (as in Mark Rutte and Wim Kok).

The use of tussenvoegsels differs between the Netherlands and Belgium.