Stroobant

This unusual surname is of Dutch origins, and is a form of occupational nickname or byname for one who displayed the product of his occupation. The name translates as "straw belt", this article being worn by a maker of, or dealer in articles made from straw and deriving from the Old Dutch "stro" (straw), plus "band" or "bant", a belt. The name is found variously recorded as Strooband, Stroobant, and Stroband, although not apparently before the 18th Century. This is very late suggesting that either the original recordings are missing, lost, or destroyed, or that the name in its modern spelling is a late variant form of something else undetected, which is very unlikely. The recordings include Ank Strooband, who married Hendrik Jans Bakker on May 20th 1804, at Zaandam, Holland. The name is recorded in the Channel Islands on November 7th 1869, when Florence Ada Stroobant, the daughter of Francois Stroobant, and the former Ellen Crick, was born at St. Peter Port, Guernsey. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Johannes Stroobant, which was dated April 22nd 1770, marriage to Margareta Vlot, at Workum, Friesland, Netherlands, during the reign of William 1V, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, 1751 - 1795. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.