Ytzen dress [English]

Translation from Dutch

This beautiful dress, the Ytzen dress, is named after me. Well, it has the same name as me. I wondered why this is, and I asked the supplier, Samsøe & Samsøe. Immediately after I send an e-mail, I automatically received part of the response, once I read the address. The company is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. I know that Ytzen is not only a Frisian first name, which has been in my family on my mother's side for hundreds of years, but also a Danish surname. I found that out in 1980 when I traveled through America and on one occasion I didn't have to spell my name letter by letter, as I was used to in my own country. Afterwards I corresponded for a while with a Mrs Ytzen in Denmark, years ago now, the contact has been lost again. I also follow the Danish journalist Flemming Ytzen, with whom I sometimes have direct contact. So a Danish connection makes the name of this dress a bit more plausible.

The next day I received a reply from Cecilie from Samsøe & Samsøe's customer service. "Unfortunately, am I not entirely sure with this name specifically", she writes, "but I do know we often name styles after our employees worldwide. So it could be the case it is named after one of our employees."

Since my name is relatively rare, I like it when I find similarities with my name. That's how I found out years ago that the students of the Yishun Town Secondary School (YTSS) on Yishun Street in Singapore call themselves the YTzens. Their vision does give me a personal boost:

Vision: Every YTzen will be respected as a Confident Leader who displays exemplary Leadership competencies. Mission: We are committed to providing opportunities to all YTzens to develop their Leadership competencies and become a Confident Leader.

I can do with that.

Years ago I once spent a day in the library of the town of Itzehoe in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany to see if the naan Itzehoe had something to do with my name - it might explain the Danish surname and the Frisian first name. But I couldn't find that link. The city was called Ekeho in the 12th century and later Ezeho, which may mean "meadowland on the river bend", but that explanation is controversial and the current Itze stream was named after the city in the twentieth century and not the other way around.

I also mentioned this in an earlier blog, dated April 7, 2017, that I read at our Tamminga family day in 2017, see Ytzen hoe?