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Position:Home>Genealogy> How do you get "Von" in your name?


Question:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von

Is there something I can do to make von go in my last name? I live in US, and my last name is Goethe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolf...


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von

Is there something I can do to make von go in my last name? I live in US, and my last name is Goethe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolf...

Ben and Matt are both basically right. It's not horribly expensive to change it, but you really don't have to. If you want to be like all the Catholics, just add it in the way Madonna added her confirmation name "Veronica" to her name without changing her name legally. Her legal name was only Madonna Louise Ciccone, but she made it Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone in her teenage years and never looked back.

But as you were also told, it does denote that someone is an aristocrat. It's one of the things high society always held against Klaus von Bulow. He added it himself, without having any magnitude of pedigree, after he started working for J Paul Getty. He was always considered a "pretender" after his friends discovered the truth that his real name is "just" Klaus Bulow.

It's up to you, but if you want to play with using it, go for it. Legally, you don't HAVE to change it to use it in everyday life. You just can't expect the state to issue a drivers license with that name on it if you don't have it on your birth certificate.

Just add it. If you want it to be legal, just change your name to add the Von part. It's easy, it doesn't cost much, you can do it yourself. Call your local probate court and ask about it.

The use of the 'von' strongly implies that someone is a titled aristocrat. It seems a little deceptive and rather vulgar to me to pretend to be of the nobility.

Genevieve's Mom is correct. It German as part of a surname it indicates aristocracy.

However, you could do like Hitler's foreign minister who was a former wine salesman. Just put the von in front of your name like
"von" Ribbentrop did.