Big name hidden meaning

At the start of a new season, the hopes and expectations of football supporters up and down the country are raised. Although we are now only a few weeks into the 2009/10 season, it seems that already some teams are facing an uphill battle to achieve success. When things aren't going quite right, supporters often want new and betters players to be signed to improve the team's performance. Sometimes the supporters express the desire for a "big named player" to be signed (meaning a well known player with a good reputation and proven track record). The team which I have supported since childhood, Hull City (yes, I know they're doing very badly so far, but there's time for improvement!) signed a player with a very big name - Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. His name might suggest that he comes from a region called Hesselink. However, the true explanation is rather different:

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's name derives from the 17th century, when two farming families in the Enschede area of the Netherlands intermarried. Both the Vennegoor and Hesselink names carried equal social weight, and so, rather than choose between them, they chose to use both. "Of" in Dutch translates to "or" in English, which would mean that a strict translation of his name would read 'Jan Vennegoor or Hesselink'. This could be considered as having the same effect as the double-barrelling of English surnames.

In England, the tradition has been that generally speaking, when a couple are married the wife will take on the husband's family name. The traditional in Holland, however, was that the family name which carried the higher social standing would be used!

For many people, even today, social status is something to be sought after. I suppose that we are all tempted in some way to avoid anything which would lower our status in the eyes of others. It has probably always been so. There is a passage in the New Testament when Jesus overhears the disciples arguing amongst themselves who is the greatest (shades of Muhammad Ali!) In response, Jesus instructed them, 'The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves'.

I love the way in which Jesus so often turned conventional wisdom on its head. In effect, he says, the greatest in God's eyes is the one who is willing to serve, and take the lowest place. Jesus certainly knows how to lay down a challenge!