As I’m working on instructions for my students for changing how their name is displayed on the university system, so that I don’t have to cross-reference lists to find that “Veen, van der, G.W.Z.” usually goes by “Minke”... Has anyone done an anthropology of #initials in Dutch?

They are positively ubiquitous.

(1). It’s already great that most people have multiple first names, and then we also have a name that we go by in daily life (“roepnaam”) that may or may not have anything to do with one, more, or none of these given names,

My fictitious student Minke is officially Geertruida Wilhelmina Zwaan, because won’t anyone think of the grandmas, but Wilhelmina plausibly gives Minke so it’s all good, and no one bats an eyelid.

In fact, if you’re a Hans and you’re not officially Johannes, you’re quite possibly in a minority of Hanses.

(2). You will also always and exclusively be registered by your initials. Minke’s email address will start with g.w.z., never m., and if they use full names, the address will be geertruida@ and not minke@

(3). The internationalisation of the university makes this even better. There are so many unspoken rules about initials that we never explain to non-Dutch students.

The exam paper has a field for “name and initials”. Minke dutifully writes “Veen, van der, G.W.Z.” but her Spanish classmate writes “Pablo García Sánchez PGS” on every page, wondering what the “PGS” is needed for.

The system obviously also has a field for “roepnaam”, which must be described as “the name that you go by for your friends and family” or something, as I’ve seen the equivalent of “Pfeffel Johnson, de, A.B.” filling in “BoJo” here. (It is meant for “Boris”.)

(4). Of course there’s a whole other thread to be written about how systems designed to deal with one naming culture can’t really deal with names from another naming culture, but that’s not this thread.

Anyway, if some (ling) anthro person wants to dive into the Dutch initials/names rabbit hole(s), hmu? In ten weeks’ time, though, when I know intuitively that “Daphne Esther Charlotte” goes by “Alice” and teaching is over.