History of Dutch Surnames
September 10, 2010 - 5:47am — mslaybau
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_name
"Surnames were not required by law until 1811 when emperor Napoleon annexed the Netherlands. Since many Dutch people thought this convention would only be temporary, some deliberately chose confusing or comical names. For example:
De Keizer - probably a wordplay on Napoleon when people registered their name; Who are you? I'm the emperor.
Rotmensen - rot, adjective meaning "rotten" + mensen "people"
Poepjes - poep, noun meaning "poo/feces", + jes plural diminutive
Piest - piest, third-person singular form of the verb piesen meaning "to urinate/to piss"
Naaktgeboren - naakt, adjective meaning "naked", + geboren meaning "born"
Zeldenthuis - zelden, adverb meaning "seldom", + thuis meaning "at home"