The family name has taken many forms over the years.  In Belgium we find the greatest variances since these are typically the earliest records.  Identified names are:

  1. •Coorenwinder, Coorenwinders

  2. •Coorenwynder

  3. •Corewinder

  4. •Cornewinder

  5. •Cornwinders

  6. •Corewyndere

  7. •Coorenwynter

  8. •Corenwynter

  9. •DeCoornewynder


It’s in these last few and oldest forms of the name that perhaps have lead us to the source of the name.  Actually, the answer has always been before many Dutch people at the local bar. Take a look at this bottle of jenever and notice the alternate name for this typically Dutch drink: Corenwijn!




This bottle is from a different family, with a different last name (Bols), but they followed a similar history of emigration from Flanders due to the Spanish.  The Bols family also fled Flanders in the 16th century and settled in Amsterdam and started the famous distillery of jenever or Corenwyn.  The early Koornwinders (or Corenwynders) were probably also distillers in some form or fashion. They do not appear to have brought their craft with them to the Netherlands, but their name suggests some affiliation with the art of making jenever.


Once they arrived in the Netherlands, we find a number of spellings of the name.  In the Leiden there are a couple of women who are remarried in 1606: Cathelyntgen Coornwynders and Jaecquemyntgen Corenwynders from Nieuwpoort and Wulpen Flanders, respectively.   Here, “Koornwinder” is written in the manner seen most often in early Belgium records.   And in Leiden in 1583, Vedastus Coornwinder wrote a letter regarding his employment in Berkel using the “Coornwinder” version of the name. Most records in Berkel spell the name as Coornwinder and scanned copies of notarial records show this form. 


In the 18th century one sees the trend toward phonetic spelling as well as the replacement of c with k in the Dutch language in general. As a result, records of the name take suddenly many forms even for the same individual.  Example: Coornwinder, Korenwinder, Koornwinder.  The C/K exchange as well as the oorn/oren/ooren variation is something that happens a lot in the records in the Netherlands up to 1811.  A sample of spellings found in the Rijnstreeksarchief include: Koorenwinder, Koorewinder, Koornwinden, Korenwinder, Korenwinter.


Fixed surnames were not required in the Netherlands until 1811-1812 when then the occupying army of Napoleon took the first census and required everyone to have a set family name.  It is around this time that we see two key branches of the family name take root:

  1. • Koornwinder

  2. • Korenwinder

The Koornwinder family migrated as a whole towards Utrecht and from there spread across Holland including to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.  The Korenwinder family appear to have settled strongly in the Haarlemermeer region.  In the families’ travels Koornwinters have been met so there could be other variants in the country. 


Meanwhile to the south in Belgium the name disappears - or more likely moves south to Dunkirk where it standardizes to Corenwinder in French.  Here is found another long running family name. Pascalle Verlomme has done quite a bit of research on this branch.


First names traditionally followed a system of naming that worked as follows:


  1. • The first son was named after his paternal grandfather

  2. • The second son would receive his maternal grandfather’s name

  3. • The first daughter was named after the maternal grandmother

  4. • The second daughter would be given the paternal grandmother's name

  5. • Subsequent names would come from the names of the parent’s brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles


However, to complicate matters, if a child died, the next child of the same gender would get that child’s name. Thus, in the archives you can see the same child’s name being christened over and over again.


This naming convention seems to have been adhered to quite strictly within the Koornwinder family.  There are a few exceptions which lead us to question the veracity of our research for these family members.  In particular, David Korenwinder, born 1728, seems to have broken from tradition.  Per the traditional naming convention, his oldest son should have been named Cornelis after his grandfather, instead we find an Erwout in the archives.  Was there also a Cornelis? We simply don’t know, which means there could be a branch of the family missing still somewhere.


This naming system is both helpful and a hindrance for genealogy.  For if Adriaan has three sons and they each have a son, you will find yourself with three Adriaans the next generation.   The Koornwinder family is awash with Davids and Adriaans (Arij, Arie) for this very reason.