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Rembrandt van Rijn is known as Rembrandt. Vincent van Gogh is known as van Gogh.

Yes, I guess in most of Europe the 200-250 years between Rembrandt and van Gogh is exactly when family names solidified from a simple description "the one from village X" or "son of Y" or "the one with a red hair" to become a hereditary name essentially detached from its meaning.

Also, van Gogh's popularity came from France, the work he did in France, and in France by this time family names had been standard there for a long time already (since around the 16th century), much earlier than in the Netherlands.

Specifically, in 1811 Napoleon made surnames mandatory for the Dutch.

A number of Dutch, displeased with Napoleon and thinking the surname thing wouldn't last, took... unfortunate surnames.

Where do Dick Van Dyke fit in all of this?

He is far too alive for us to worry about that.

(Luckily, these posts are explicitly datestamped .. !)

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