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Origins of the Family NameWalvoort/WalvoordOriginally the name "Walvoord" was spelled
"Walvoort." In fact, the "Walvoord" spelling does not exist in Holland.
Today, Dutch phone books have only about sixteen or so phone listings
of the "Walvoort" name most, all located in the Gelderland province
where the name originated.
In America there are just over
one-hundred telephone listings of this name -- the majority now spelled
"Walvoord" with only a handful spelled the original way.
In
Dutch (Nederlands) the word "voort" or "voorde" means: "place in or
part of a river or stream that is shallow enough to permit crossing it
by (or on horseback)."
The same word exists in most Germanic languages:
- English: 'ford,'
- Old Frisian: 'forda,'
- German: 'furt.'
- Welsh: 'fiordd' meaning "way, or road"
- Norwegian: 'fjord' meaning "firth, waterway, or sea-arm."
Some place names in the Netherlands that are examples of this wording are:
- Zandvoort:
- ford in the sand;
- Westervoort:
- ford on the west side;
- Bredevoort:
- wide ford;
- Lichtenvoorde:
- ford with much light or easy going ford. Also,
- Amersvoort:
- ford in the river Aam, now called river Eem;
- Coevorden:
- ford where cows cross the river
(someone of the local noble family 'van Coeverden' was the founder of Vancouver, BC, Canada).
The
name WALVOORT probably means: ford near a 'wal.' "Wal" in Dutch
does not mean "wall" as in the side of a building like it does in
English, but it means a "man-made earthen fortification; or rampart
around a town."
So "Walvoort" means "ford near a town's earthen defense mount."
The
'wallen' (plural of 'wal') in Amsterdam used to be (non-stone) defense
structures around the successive outer canals. It is now the name of
the red light district.
Just east of Aalten, Gelderland, Netherlands, is a small castle called the Walvoort.  The surrounding farmstead has gone by that or other similar names for centuries. In 1402, it was called Waldenvort and was owned by Derich van Lintelo. In records of 1424 it was called Walvoort. In 1500, it was called Waelvaert, and in 1600, Walvaert. The van Lintelo family owned it until 1609 when it passed to a Johan van Coeverden who had married a Fredrica Margriet van Lintelo. In 1712 it was called "het (the) Walfart." The van Coeverden family owned it until 1730. Today maps identify the castle as " `t Walfort." It
was the local seat of power for many years. Presumably most, if not
all, variants of the name originated from people who lived and worked
the farmstead. To see photos of what the Walfort looks like today, click here.
According
to family tradition, a court official in the country of Holland by the
name of Walvoort wished to establish his name. He was married but
childless. He was a wealthy man and had many servants. So, to solve his
problem, one day he made a proposition to a man and woman who happened
to be two of his favorite servants. He told them, "If you will marry
and adopt my name, Walvoort, you can inherit all of my wealth." So the
couple were married. Their original name was Geezink.
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