(OT) Re: Anthroponymy (was Re: Re: Laadan)

Jan van Steenbergen wrote:


> --- Andreas Johansson skrzypszy:
>
>> Would "Koevoets" be pronounced something like [ku:fu:ts]? If so, it
sounds
>> unpleasantly much like the (indefinite) genitive of Swedish _kofot_, lit
>> "cow-foot", meaning "crowbar".
>
>Then I've got news for you: a "koevoet" IS a crowbar (in the genitive
form)!
>
Also lit. "cow-foot", no?  I like the smaller version, the carpenter's
nail-pulling tool called "cat's paw".

A while back someone mentioned that when the Dutch were officially required
to adopt surnames (Napoleonic era?), a lot of people, either out of spite or
mere whimsy, took such "funny" names.  In that regard, and speaking of cows,
my new neighbor, whose name is Bont, recently explained that it was
shortened from Bontekoe "Spotted Cow".  (That would be Dutch, not Native
American)

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