Jan Hieminga and Bouwe Hieminga Looking through the family tree, there are two first names that are pretty popular as they turn up with some regularity: Jan and Bouwe. I can find 35 Hiemingas with Jan or a variant thereof as a first or second name, and six Hiemingas with Bouwe as a first or second name. Extending this to other surnames yields more results: Bouwe turns up 28 times and Jan turns up 108 times. Going back to the early days (or as far back as genealogical research has been able to take us so far) there were no surnames and only a first name and patronym was used, which muddled the family links a bit. We do see that over those first years, the names Auke and Taede were most common as there is a string of Taede Aukes and Auke Taedes alternating for almost a 100 years. By 1734 Jan Aukes Hieminga is one of the first generations to use the Hieminga surname and also the first time that Jan turns up as a first name. From that point on the first names start alternating between Jan and Ulbe for the first-born sons. The use of Bouwe as a first name in the Hieminga family starts with the two sons of Wiepke Jans Hieminga (see photo below). His first son is named Jan, as is the custom, and his other son is named Bouwe, to honour the kid's grandfather on his mother's side, Bouwe Minnes Vellinga. This first son, Jan Hieminga, is my great-grandfather and there is a lot more about him on this page: Jan Hieminga and his school. When this Jan Hieminga and his wife Klaaske van der Laan received their first son, he was named after his grandfather on the Hieminga side: Wiepke. His second son was named after his grandfather on the Van der Laan side: Frank, and their third son received the name Bouwe. This was my grandfather. Their fourth son Bjintze was named after his wife's grandfather on her mother's side, Bjintze Pieters Boschker. As they only had four sons, they could cover all the grandfathers. I have not looked into the various names for the daughters, no doubt there are more puzzles to solve and mysteries to explore there. By re-using the name Bouwe, Jan Hieminga was able to kill several birds with one stone: it honoured his brother, his own grandfather on his mother's side (Bouwe Minnes Vellinga) and also his wife's grandfather Bouwe Siegers van der Laan. Within that family the name Bouwe goes back to Bouwe Greelts from 1710. In the next generation, three first sons received the name Jan:
The name Bouwe turns up as well, with the Frisian custom of referring to both parents providing the first names of Bouwe Geert to one of Bouwe's sons. Jetze and Emmy then named their first son Bouwe and several sons within this generation have either Jan or Bouwe as a second name. The custom of re-using first names is less prevalent as it was, but no doubt we will see more examples of Jan and Bouwe show up in the family tree in due course.
|
