Need help with a Dutch name

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Been doing family research but one of the branches is a bit difficult as someone changed it to James (the families were related) because they found it too difficult to spell, family history says it was a teacher.

I’d always heard the name was Kovis, that’s my spelling of it. My dad recently ran into a James and inthe course of their conversation, Dad asked if the family had any stories about a name change. The guy said yes, that the name used to be Jakovis, again, my spelling of the name. We always knew the name was Dutch, not Deutsch. But alas I’ve never found anything that I could link to my family. Now I have hope, I just need to know how to spell the name. I’ve tried a few variations but am still striking out in finding family.

If anyone knows anything about the name I’d love to hear about it.

2

At first I wondered since I’ve never heard the name Kovis over here. Google for Dutch pages gave me this link, which lists it as a first name for one ancestor (Kovis Jan). Then I started thinking: sounds like Kovis, is a first name (which you implied by refering to James, I know).

: light bulb switching on :

You’re probably refering to Kobus, short for Jakobus or Jacobus. This is the Dutch form of the biblical Jacob. It used to be a very common first name, but is considered rather old-fashioned these days (IMHO).

3

Thanks, I’ll give that a try.

In truth, I should have figured that out by myself. We’ll see what I turn up.

4

My money’s on Kobus too, from that description.