WHAT IS THE ETHNICITY OF THE SURNAME STAVENS? IS THIS SURNAME DANISH,
DUTCH OR ENGLISH?

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Request for Question Clarification by blazius-ga on 28 Jan 2004 00:23 PST

I have spoken with a friend of me who is a native of one of the
countries you mention.  She strongly believes that the name has its
origins in her home country, but this is based on her personal opinion
and not on scientific research.  I am able to support her views with a
few links from the web, but I am not able to provide a well-supported,
definite answer.

Please state if you will accept an answer as outlined above, or if you
wish that another researcher should try answering your question.

I have queryied the Statistics Denmark Name Search Utility at
http://www.dst.dk/Statistik/Navne/HvorMange.aspx .  Entering "Stavens"
in the "Efternavn" field returns "Der findes 0,1 eller 2 med navnet."
which translates to "there are 0, 1 or 2 people with this name".  This
is strong evidence that the name is very uncommon in Denmark today.

I have not found similar services for the Netherlands or England, but
I tend to believe that the name is Dutch.

The sites for family names in Holland (http://www.familienaam.nl/) and
Belgium (http://www.familienaam.be/) return 0 hits.

Although it sounds Dutch; it doesn?t seem to be a Dutch (or Belgian) name either.