AMSTERDAM, 04/12/09 - The University of Utrecht and Amsterdam's Meertens Institute yesterday opened the Netherlands Family Names Bank. The institutes have registered 314,000 family names occurring in the Netherlands.

The most frequently occurring surnames among the indigenous Dutch are De Jong, Jansen and De Vries. The three fast-growing surnames are logically those of immigrants: Yilmaz, Nguyen and Ali.

The databank also shows the geographical distribution of surnames. For example, names ending in -sma or -stra, such as Terpstra, originate from Friesland. Names ending in -ink, such as Wellink, have their roots in the Twente region.

In total, supplementary information has been added to over 100,000 names, such as genealogical changes, variants on the name and likely origin. The Netherlands Family Names Bank can be found at www.meertens.knaw.nl/nfb.