Dutch to English translation

Van, de and van der

In a Dutch surname the small words belong to it: de Vries, van der Berg. In the Netherlands they are written in lower case after a given name and with a capital when the surname stands alone, and indexes file the name under the main word. The translation keeps the surname exactly as your passport prints it, so no one mistakes “van” for a middle name.

A partner’s name on the card

A Dutch passport or licence shows only the birth surname. If the holder asked for it, a partner’s surname sits on an extra line after e.v. (spouse of) or p.v. (partner of). The translation labels that line for what it is, so no reader takes it for your own surname.

Source: Gemeente Eindhoven, naamgebruik (checked 19 September 2026)

Extracts and multilingual forms

A municipality issues an uittreksel, an extract from the Personal Records Database (BRP), for address and family details, and Dutch and Belgian registries can issue multilingual civil-status extracts under the 1976 Vienna Convention. If yours carries English labels, see documents already in English before you order.

The whole rijbewijs

Both sides of the card, field by field: name, date and place of birth, issue and expiry dates, the issuing municipality, the licence number, and each category on the back with its dates and any code, written out in words rather than left as numbers.

Names as your passport spells them

The prefix, the capital letters and any hyphen are copied from your passport, so the licence, the certificate and the passport show one surname, not three versions of it.

Civil records in full

The akte van geboorte and huwelijksakte, divorce and death records, BRP extracts, police certificates, diplomas and transcripts. Stamps, seals and later annotations are translated where they appear; unreadable text is marked in square brackets.