van der Merwe Surname

5,283rd
Most Common
surname in the World

Approximately 107,222 people bear this surname

Most prevalent in:
South Africa
Highest density in:
South Africa

van der Merwe Surname Definition:

“Of the Merwe” river in South Holland, better known as the Merwede.

Read More About This Surname

van der Merwe Surname Distribution Map

PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
South Africa100,8251:53738
Australia1,4621:18,4652,575
Saudi Arabia9141:33,7594,846
England9091:61,2967,229
Namibia9051:2,662433
Netherlands5301:31,8635,300
New Zealand3771:12,0112,090
Zimbabwe3011:51,2907,802
Canada2341:157,46015,959
Thailand1971:358,57062,786
United States1301:2,788,146165,890
Botswana1051:20,8284,170
Kuwait771:49,3605,585
Bahrain591:22,8584,582
Germany441:1,829,670103,431
Scotland431:124,5077,876
Argentina381:1,124,82767,975
Switzerland361:228,13719,301
DR Congo211:3,518,075145,665
Wales191:162,87011,152
Belgium181:638,70256,744
France171:3,907,219231,005
Ireland161:294,30910,207
Mozambique161:1,703,8482,274
Spain131:3,596,31069,669
Singapore131:423,66918,211
Northern Ireland121:153,7538,250
China121:113,943,4645,994
Sweden101:984,67673,605
Sierra Leone91:787,737678
Brazil91:23,786,037375,389
Zambia91:1,761,10232,119
Qatar91:262,00030,726
Swaziland91:144,244719
Malawi91:1,902,12319,532
South Korea81:6,405,0321,091
Malaysia81:3,686,778134,908
United Arab Emirates81:1,145,28440,289
Iceland71:54,2993,881
Nigeria61:29,523,793355,097
Denmark51:1,128,94352,970
Monaco51:7,4131,114
Oman41:921,9937,313
Angola41:6,747,3046,999
Kenya41:11,544,97562,419
Ghana41:6,755,17315,406
India31:255,688,4611,306,352
Tanzania31:17,647,204107,932
Indonesia31:44,083,065698,220
Russia21:72,061,528727,117
Italy21:30,578,344160,757
Norway21:2,571,14395,402
Hong Kong21:3,667,74211,574
Mauritius21:646,70813,517
Lebanon21:2,818,54225,087
Turks and Caicos Islands21:17,164627
Ukraine21:22,761,348425,733
Central African Republic11:4,515,3901,196
Afghanistan11:32,153,18360,828
Algeria11:38,631,551130,422
Sri Lanka11:20,808,56018,521
Bermuda11:65,2793,010
Taiwan11:23,444,74693,622
Austria11:8,515,435118,036
Tunisia11:610,62630,336
Uganda11:39,039,279258,887
Mauritania11:4,094,86338,869
Iraq11:35,021,65431,813
Isle of Man11:85,8224,091
Israel11:8,557,634182,558
Haiti11:10,683,90724,607
Lesotho11:2,032,55823,402
Liberia11:4,408,53547,110
Lithuania11:3,034,58847,401
Madagascar11:23,649,8379,420
Malta11:430,2723,380
Seychelles11:92,3931,532
Mexico11:124,126,205103,776
Guinea11:11,833,8173,268
Greece11:11,079,790145,225
Eritrea11:4,751,901911
Philippines11:101,238,223404,861
Portugal11:10,418,24125,048
Colombia11:47,774,07244,230
Senegal11:14,579,34211,705

van der Merwe Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

“Of the Merwe” river in South Holland, better known as the Merwede.

South African Surnames (1965) by Eric Rosenthal

User-submitted Reference

Van der Merwe translates to 'from the Merwedef. The merwede means 'wide water' in Dutch and refers to a delta, several connected stretches of river, in the Netherlands, mostly between the cities of Dordrecht, Pependrecht and Woudrichem. It is a very popular surname in South Africa. This is due to the many settlers who immigrated from the Merwede to farm in the area around modern day Cape Town in the late 17th century. They took this surname to remember their heritage and their family back home.

- mani.ka

Willem Schalkzoon van der Merwe settled in South Africa in 1661. He had 13 children, but only one son, Schalk Willemzoon, had male children who survived to adulthood. All Van der Merwes in South Africa are related to these two men.

- Forebears.io Manual Submissions

van der Merwe Last Name Facts

Where Does The Last Name van der Merwe Come From? nationality or country of origin

van der Merwe is carried by more people in South Africa than any other country or territory. It can also be rendered as a variant:. For other potential spellings of this name click here.

How Common Is The Last Name van der Merwe? popularity and diffusion

The surname is the 5,283rd most numerous surname on a global scale, borne by approximately 1 in 67,967 people. van der Merwe occurs mostly in Africa, where 95 percent of van der Merwe reside; 95 percent reside in Southern Africa and 95 percent reside in South Bantu Africa.

The surname van der Merwe is most frequently held in South Africa, where it is held by 100,825 people, or 1 in 537. In South Africa it is most numerous in: Gauteng, where 33 percent are found, Western Cape, where 18 percent are found and KwaZulu-Natal, where 9 percent are found. Excluding South Africa it exists in 84 countries. It is also common in Australia, where 1 percent are found and Saudi Arabia, where 1 percent are found.

van der Merwe Last Name Statistics demography

The amount van der Merwe earn in different countries varies greatly. In South Africa they earn 79.96% more than the national average, earning R 427,656 per year; in United States they earn 99.17% more than the national average, earning $85,938 USD per year and in Canada they earn 17.59% more than the national average, earning $58,423 CAD per year.

Phonetically Similar Names

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Footnotes

  • Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
  • Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
  • Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
  • Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
  • Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
  • Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
  • Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to van der Merwe
  • To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on Family​Search, My​Heritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis