When the Dutch colony of New Netherland (now New York) formed in the early 1600's, surnames were not required. It was a time when patronyms were used, which means that people had a two-part name consisting of a given name and a last name which was a variation of the father's given name. If a boy Gilbert had a father named Jacob, the boy would be known as Gilbert Jacobse (sometimes Jacobsz or Jacobsen). This basically means "Gilbert, child of Jacob". The last name of Gilbert's son would be Gilbertse, etc. The British gained control of the Dutch colony in 1664, lost control in 1673, then regained control in 1674. The British required that people have a surname. People who had none had to create one. Many took the name of the village from which they came, but put Van (from) in front of it. The Van Burens came from the village of Bueren or Beuren in the Netherlands. Some took a name that described something environmental, like Van Den Bergh, which means something like 'from the mountains', or sometimes it was an occupation like Bakker (baker). The Dutch kept their patronym (meaning 'father's name') as a middle name. My eighth greatgrandfather was Jacob Janse Gardenier (the son of Jan, which was the equivalent of John). His sons and daughters all had the middle name of Jacobse. My Danish greatgrandfather and his brother had many children all with the middle name of Jacobs or Jacobsen. They arrived in this country in the 1870's. Denmark didn't require surnames until about 1860, like the other Scandinavian countries. In pre-1800 Reformed Dutch church records, a middle name was not often recorded, but it was generally understood, at least for the sons. In a baptism record, a boy could be recorded as John, son of Nicholas and Mary Van Buren. Later, it is likely he would be referred to as John N. Van Buren even if he didn't receive an official middle name during a baptism. I have seen baptism records in which the boy's middle name was the same as his mother's maiden name. If it was Smith, he could later be referred to as John S. Van Buren, but a lot of people would not know his real middle name. In that case, he could be recorded as John N. Van Buren if they knew his father's name. Junior is another interesting part of a name. If two men in a village had the same name, the younger one would often be called Jr. even if he was not related to the other man by the same name. Cliff Lamere