Previously posted on "Van Vlerah" Ancestry Message Board:
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VLIEREN surname family: What is included, what is not?
Author: Laura Carlos
Date: 13 Dec 2004 8:42 AM GMT
Surnames: van vliet vlier vlieren vleering vleerin vlierden vlierend vanvlieren vandervlieren
Does anyone know if Van Vlier (with an R) is related to Van Vliet (with a T)? I am descended from Van Vlieren (various spellings: Vleering, Vleerin, Vlierden, Vlierend) of New York State, Ulster or Greene Counties, going back to Colonial days. Van Vlieren (with an R) is relatively rare. Is Van Vlieren its own surname, or related to Van Vlier, or related to Van Vliet, or related to other? It seems VLIEREN is the base name.
Are VLIER, VLIEREN, VAN VLIEREN, and/or VAN DER VLIEREN variant spellings of the same surname?
I am ignorant of old Dutch naming systems and surname families. On the other hand, I am very well-versed in Irish surnames, but not Dutch.
What are Dutch surname "rules," so to speak?
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?d...---------------------------------------------------
Reply from "Mara":
Re: VLIEREN surname family: What is included, what is not?
Author: Mara
Date: 2 Feb 2005 6:58 PM GMT
Hi LJ,
A researcher-Willem from rootsweb, gave me this helpful information about my vanvlerah family. Hope it helps!
1. Named after a plant
If you're pronouncing both name like 'Flea-rah', the original
name might have been 'VAN VLIER' [vlier = elder(tree)].
In Middle Dutch the name of this tree/bush, used to be written several ways:
vlier, vleder, vler, vleer, vlieder, vlinder, vliedere.
It's a possibility, that is: this name was and is known in the Netherlands.
2. Patronymic
I did have a look at possible variations of the name, but -yet- didn't find one.
Looking at given names -with ressemblence to 'flira' or 'vlerah', which would have led to a patronymic surname did provide me but one: Florentius, a male given name with a lot of derivations:
Fleur, Fleuris, Floor,Flor, Florens, Florent, Florentinus, Florinus, Florus for the male perons, and quite some for the females.
Florus comes close to 'Flerah' or 'Vlerah', but -as to Dutch pronunciation-'Flira' or 'Vlerah' comes closer.
But, if Florus might have been the given name leading to the patronymic 'Vlerah', the preposition 'Van' doesn't make much sense.
3. Named after geographical origin
Again, I did only look at names with a -slight- ressemblence to Flira and
Vlerah:
- Generally > Van Vlier (vlier/vledder = low grasslands,bogs, marsh(y)land)
- Flieren : hamlet south of Gent, near Nijmegen, the Netherlands
- Fliert: hamlet south of Ede, at the border of the provinces
Gelderland/Utrecht, the Netherlands;
- het Vlier: names of two regions and a hamlet in the eastern part of the
province Overijssel, the Netherlands;
- Vlierd: hamlet south of 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch),prov. of Noord
Brabant, the Netherlands;
- Vlierden: village in Noord-Braban, the Netherlands, east of Helmond;
- Vleringen: hamlet north of Almelo, a city in the eastern part of the Overijsel province in the Netherlands.