D'Hooghe

This Dutch surname is well recorded in its homeland of Zuid Holland from the 17th century. Sadly church recordings from the region are rather poor owing to the continual waves of war between the States of the Netherlands, Spain, and France through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The surname is found in many different spellings locational and from the town of Hoog in the province of Brabant. The surname spelling has many forms although the original one may well be 'De Hoogh', as shown in the earliest recording available to us. Other spellings include De Hoog, De Hooch, Van der Hoog, Hoogh, Do Hoogt, D'Hooge, Van T'Hoog, etc. Examples of the name recordings include Helen De Hoogh who apparently married an Englishman, or at least somebody with a very English surname, called John Underhill, at Gravehage, Zuid Holland, on December 12th 1628, and Gerrit Hoogh, who married Magdalena Pijl at Alblasserdam, Zuid Holland, on July 18th 1700. Other recordings are those of Frans D'Hooge, son of Ariaen D'Hooge, christened at Oosterland, Zeeland, on January 21st 1770, and Jacobus De Hooge, who married Maatje Starrenburg at Goes, Zeeland, on October 30th 1793.The coat of arms is a black field, charged with a silver fess, in chief three fold knight spurs, pierced. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Cornelia Van Der Hoogh, which was dated July 1st 1533, christened at Delft, Zuid Holland, during the reign of Prince Rene de Nassau, Stadtholder of Holland, 1530 - 1544. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.