Explore the Family Name Stuyvesant

The meaning of Stuyvesant

Dutch: variant of Stuivezand or Stuifzand, a topographic name from stuifzand ‘drifting sand, sand dune’ (from stuiven ‘to flow or drift’ + zand ‘sand’), or a habitational name from any of several minor places in the Netherlands, including Stuivezand in North Brabant and Stuifzand near Hoogeveen in Drenthe. This form of the surname is not found in the Netherlands. History: Petrus (Peter) Stuyvesant (c.1611–72) was director general of New Netherland in 1647–64. He came from Friesland and was probably born in 1611 or 1612 in Peperga, where the old reformed church recently has been renamed Pieter Stuyvesant Church. He entered the service of the Dutch West India Company in or before 1635 and served as governor of Curaçao in 1643–7. He was famous for his silver leg, the original having been amputated after he was shot in the leg during a siege in 1644. In 1664 he was compelled to surrender New Netherland to the British, and thereafter he lived quietly until his death on his farm (Dutch bouwerij) on the East River, in what is now the Bowery in New York City.

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