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Berkhof or Berkhoff is a surname from Dutch / German origin. The name means literally `birch-farm´ or `birch-farmhouse´ and falls as such under the so-called farm names. Such a name served as an address when street names were not commonly used. To leave no doubt there would have stood a birch tree in the yard.
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Origin
Fairly common practice in farm names was that the lessee (tenant) of the farm and his family received the farm name as an addition behind the first name and the patronymic. Primarily, however, was the name connected to the farmhouse and the yard. This meant that a new, succeeding lessee and his family could also become known by the farm name. This way several unrelated families can have their name derived from one and the same farm. Because the lessee and his descendants that had left the farm, often continued in using the farm name by which they had become generally known. In The Netherlands as well as in Northwest-Germany several of these farms-of-origin are known. The oldest known references of these date from the early sixteenth and even one from the end of the fifteenth century.