The term () is used in German surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means or .
Nobility directories like the often abbreviate the noble term to v. In medieval or early modern names, the particle was at times added to commoners' names; thus, meant . This meaning is preserved in Swiss toponymic surnames and in the Dutch , which is a cognate of but also does not necessarily indicate nobility.
Usage
Germany and Austria
The abolition of the monarchies in Germany and Austria in 1919 meant that neither state has a privileged nobility, and both have exclusively republican governments.
In Germany, this means that legally von simply became an ordinary part of the surnames of the people who used it. There are no longer any legal privileges or constraints associated with this naming convention. According to German alphabetical sorting, people with von in their surnames – of noble or non-noble descent alike – are listed in telephone books and other files under the rest of their names (e.g., the economist Ludwig von Mises would have been found under M in the phone book rather than V).
In Austria, in contrast, not only were the privileges of the nobility abolished, their titles and prepositions were abolished as well in 1919. Thus, for example, Friedrich von Hayek became simply Friedrich Hayek. (See also Austrian nobility on this issue.)
In contrast to the peerage of the United Kingdom, the aristocracies of the German-speaking countries were held to include untitled nobility, although the names of nearly all the families falling into this category did include von, zu, von und zu, von der, von dem, zum, vom und zum or zur.
Non-noble use
The preposition originated among German speakers during the Middle Ages and was commonly used to signify a person's origins, appending the name of the place they originated from (see toponymic surname), or the name of their parents, as the concept of a surname did not start to come into common usage until later on.
Nevertheless, it was mostly aristocrats and other land owners who acquired a surname consisting of von, zu or zur and a toponym. When families were raised to nobility later on, the prefix was added in front of their existing name whatever its source, e.g. von Goethe. In some cases, even an existing non-noble von became noble, or vice versa, therefore the same surname sometimes would be shared by noble and non-noble individuals.
Especially in the Northwest (Bremen, Hamburg, Holstein, Lower Saxony, Schleswig, Westphalia) and in German-speaking Switzerland, von is a frequent element in non-noble surnames. About 200 to 300 known non-noble surnames contain the element von.
In order to distinguish the noble von from the non-noble one, the Prussian military abbreviated it to v. in noble names, often without a space following it, whereas the non-noble von was always spelled in full.
Examples, meaning "Von Humboldt came later.":
- Duden styles: "Von Humboldt kam später." and "v. Humboldt kam später."
- Neue Zürcher Zeitung style: "Humboldt kam später."