Explore the Family Name De Klerk

The meaning of De Klerk

1. Dutch: occupational name for a clerk or scribe, Middle Dutch clerc, from Late Latin clericus (see French Clerc), with the definite article de. This surname is also established in South Africa, where it is reportedly (also) of French Huguenot origin (see 2 below). Compare De Clark and De Clerk. 2. Altered form of French Le Clercq (see Leclerc and Leclercq) or of its Flemish variant De Clercq, cognates of 1 above, established in South Africa. History: The progenitor of the (majority of the) South African bearers of the surname De Klerk of reportedly French origin (see 2 above) was Abraham le Clercq or de Clercq, born in Serooskerke in the Dutch province of Zeeland (where the Flemish surname De Clercq is also established), who arrived in the Dutch Cape Colony in 1688. His surname was later altered to de Klerk. He is recognized as a French Huguenot ancestor by the Huguenot Society of South Africa. One of his descendants is Frederik Willem de Klerk, president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.