Re: USAGE: Betreft: USAGE: surname prefixes

Rob Nierse wrote:

> Well, in Dutch there are some prefixes that indicate location or origin.
> van, van de and van der indicate somthing like 'belonging to'
> We also have 's <des (genitive) in placenames like 's Hertogenbosch
> (genitive-the wood of the duke) and 's Gravenhage (genitive-the wood
> of the count).
What about "ter" as a surname prefix?  The press secretary of U.S. President
Gerald Ford (1974-76) was named "Jerry ter Horst" and I remember hacking a
surname-canonicalization subroutine to handle this case correctly.

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