History of the Van Wyk Family Name

This surname was introduced to South Africa in 1676 by one Willem van Wy(c)k, son of Arien Gerriks van Wyck and a native of the Dutch village of Ingen. On 5 August 1685, he was married to Catharina Hillebrandt, with whom he was to have tow children. Arie van Wyk, thought to have been the brother of Willem, followed him in the Cape and became a citizen of Stellenbosch. He was wed in 1693 to Cornelia Helm, the widow of Johannes van der Bosch. From the union of Arie and Cornelia there issued nine children. The surname van Wyk originated as a toponymic name, reflecting an associateion of the initial bearer with a place of habitation, such as a town or village. Here, the inspiration for the name appears to have come from the town of Wijk-by-Duurstede, which is located south of Amersfoort in the Netehrlands province of Utrecht. This town, which sits at the pint where the Kromme Fijn and Cek rivers diverge, is home to the "castle of Duurstede", the ancient seat of the archbishipric of Utrecht. The site of the town has been contunously occupied since Roman times, when it was known as "Batavodurum", and in the Carolingian era, "Darestadum", as it was then called, was an important entrepat for trade between the Frankish realm and the Vikings.
A toponymic surname would often result from the circumstances of an individual migrating from one settlement to another, where the residents might refer to the newcomer by the name of his former home. In Holland, a family of the nobility or gentry would frequently adopt as a surname the name of a town where a family member owned an estate or enjoyed feudal privileges. The arms are designed by South African families named van Wyk, and were based upon those fo a van Wyck family of Amsterdam.

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