| abstract
| - Want to give an ambiguous character that extra bit of onomastic intrigue? Tack a "Von" on to their last name. Technically, von is merely a German preposition which approximately means of or from which appears mostly in names of families that belong (or once belonged) to the nobility. To set themselves off from commoners with "von" in their names, German-speaking noble persons sometimes prefer the abbreviation "v.". The nobility was abolished as a privileged estate in 1918, since then "von" and titles of nobility like "Graf" (count) or "Ritter" (knight) are treated as mere parts of the name. Note that the capitalization Von is a non-German, mostly English usage. Before the 20th century, it was quite common to translate "von" as "de" in French texts and German-speaking diplomats would sign that way under treaties (which explains why even today it's not uncommon to see Germanic names preceded by that particular Latin preposition). Some German-speaking noble families have more elaborate particles before their name such as "von dem" (shortened form: "vom") or "von der" (both mean "of the"), others have "zu" or "zum" (roughly "at", which usually indicates the actual or former place of residence), some have "vom und zum". There are also both noble families which have "SURNAME von OTHER NAME" or "SURNAME zu PLACE NAME" (as usual, there are exceptions, such as names of the pattern "Meyer zu PLACE NAME" and e. g. the poet August Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who added "von Fallersleben" after his birthplace to distinguish himself from other writers called Hoffmann). And there are ones that combine "von" with "nobility indicators" from other languages such as with many surnames containing the slavic suffix "-ski" or "-sky" or Franco-German combinations as the noble Huguenot family von Arnauld de la Perière. At its most basic level, "von" merely exists as a marker of Germanic origin, high origin or both. However, character namers have seen fit to use the syllable to make two main branches of the Von Trope Family tree. 1.
* Darker Von Trope: Often the Von implies sternness, skill at intrigue, sadism or any of the other tropes that Those Wacky Nazis tend to inspire -- ironically, as the old nobility largely despised the Nazis as parvenus. Less dark variations may include the particularly Gothic or militaristic Badass, especially those that are a riff on Otto von Bismarck (a classic Magnificent Bastard) or Baron Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron. Sometimes the characters with the name do not have a Germanic origin at all. 2.
* Lighter Von Trope: It is also used as more of a Stock Foreign Name for a Germanic Funny Foreigner (especially Mad Scientists), or for goofy characters for whom the aristocratic bearing of the name seems incongruous. 3.
* Or sometimes, the character just happens to have that as part of their family name, with no particular cultural significance meant to be attached (though in countries with a long history of democracy, the elitist overtones of the prefix often cause it to be dropped). Naturally, there may be crossover between these two subsets. The Dutch equivalent, "Van", may be used to imply the same categories, if more rarely. In America, a Dutch Preppy Name is often a better shorthand to signify old money and "WASPiness" than an actual Anglo-Saxon one would be.
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