Samenvatting

In this article the author argues that current, legalistic thinking about changing surnames would benefit from a more psychological approach. This would better meet the needs of descendants of enslaved people who are troubled by the surnames colonial governors administered to their ancestors upon ‘emancipation’. The author traces the history of origin of surnames in the Dutch colonial context and discusses the problems that arise when colonial records would be re-used in the present-day context. In a project commissioned by WODC the Verwey-Jonker Institute researched the question of how suitable the colonial registrations are as a basis for name change requests nowadays. As the author argues, a solely archival-technical approach of the wish to change disturbing surnames is inappropriate, especially now that the Dutch government has made official apologies for the slavery past in December 2022. A more generous gesture is necessary, which makes space for healing and for increasing the accessibility of sources for family history.