WILLEMSTAD - The available slave registers are not suitable as a basis for refusing requests for name changes. They are never 100 percent complete. Precisely because they are incomplete, they do not provide sufficient basis to reject a name change. There are always missing groups and individuals, notes the Verwey-Jonker Institute.  

The Institute conducted research on behalf of the Dutch Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) to see whether the existing registers and overviews from the former Dutch colonies can be used to assess requests for name changes.  

The reason for the research is the wish of the political party DENK of June 2021 to offer descendants of enslaved people the opportunity to change their surname free of charge.  

Ministers Ollongren and Grapperhaus have promised to study the possibilities for this. In addition to literature research and desk research, the research consisted of interviews with experts, such as historians and name experts. 

Prove 

When you want to change your surname in the Netherlands, in many cases you have to prove that you are affected by that surname. This is also the case with surnames that have a link with the Dutch slavery past.  

According to the researchers, there are even more surnames related to the Dutch slavery past that are not yet known. It must be prevented that people are excluded from the possibility of a name change because their family name happens to not appear in the register.  

This also applies to people whose family name was assigned under the administration of another colonial power at the time. Or for descendants of ancestors who at the time were, but are no longer subject to Dutch law due to decolonization or migration, according to the researchers.  

Social considerations  

According to the researchers, expertise, flexibility and social sensitivity are required to make the current registers usable as a basis for name changes.  

In addition, the researchers expect social opposition to the drawing up of an overarching list of names for the assessment of name change requests. After all, this would be based on colonial sources from a context of oppression and exploitation. 

At that time there was no freedom to choose one's own name. The researchers therefore find it valuable that the government is now more in line with the needs of the descendants of enslaved people.  

Many believe that the government should now be generous in the possibilities and compensation for name changes. That generosity should be independent of colonial sources.