A number of reforms in various spheres were introduced in our country when the French occupied the Batavian Republic in 1795. One of these reforms was the rule promulgated by the French Emperor Napoleon, that all inhabitants of his State had to bear a surname.
Before 1811 a family name was especially used by people who belonged to the nobility and the well-to-do citizens. Most people however lived without a surname. They bore a patronym: the first name of the father supplied by the letter "s" or the suffix "son" or "daughter". People were also named by a nickname. Those nicknarnes were taken from a profession (for example: Bakker, Smid, Mulder), the dwelling place (for example: Van Dijk, Groeneweg, Van der Laan) and from farms and other buildings (for example: Van der Molen, Wieringa, Zuidhof).
During the 17th century, long before the obligations laid by Napoleon, many people, especially in the western provinces gradually, chose their nickname as their surname. But in the northern provinces, Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe and in large parts of Overijssel, Gelderland and Zeeland most people kept using patronyms.
As written before, this situation ended in 1811. An imperial decree of August 18 of that year laid down that any inhabitant of the State who had not yet a definite surname, was obliged to choose a family-name within a year. Every municipality was obligated to make a register in which was written the chosen name.
Our research made clear that the name "Afman" was chosen about 1811. It is not easy to answer why our ancestors chose this very special name. Inside our family various theories exist about the origin of the name "Afman". One is more obvious than the other.
We stick to the following one about arising of the name from "Hafman":
In the Gemeenteatlas by Kuypers we see in Finsterwolde, between the dikes of 1819 and 1862, two roads with the name "Afweg". Both roads are situated square to the dike and go towards the Dollart. They come out at the Hoofdweg that, situated in the land on the outside of the dike, follows the coastline. You can observe exactly the same situation in the neighbouring municipality of Nieuwolda. Perhaps the name "Afweg" arose, by the peculiarity of the local dialect, from "Hafweg", the road to the haf.
The name "Afman" might be derived in exactly the same way from "haf': the man who lived and worked near the haf (the Dollart). So originally "Hafman". The local dialect, the well-known specific peculiarity in the pronunciation and the omitting of the "h" finally caused the name "Afman".
(From the first Family Book Afman, 1996)