spoken, a daughter language of Dutch, which itself was an official language of South Africa until 1983. The Dutch, Flemish and Surinamese governments coordinate their language activities in the ('Dutch Language Union'), an institution also responsible for governing the Dutch Standard language, for example in matters of orthography. Etymology of autonym and exonym The origins of the word Dutch go back to Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of all Germanic languages, (meaning "national/popular"); akin to Old Dutch , Old High German , Old English and Gothic all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". As the tribes among the Germanic peoples began to differentiate its meaning began to change. The Anglo-Saxons of England for example gradually stopped referring to themselves as and instead started to use , after their tribe. On the continent evolved into two meanings: meaning "Dutch (people)" (archaic) and (German, meaning "German (people)"). At first the English language used (the contemporary form of) Dutch to refer to any or all of the Germanic speakers on the European mainland (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the Germanic people they had most contact with, both because of their geographical proximity, but also because of the rivalry in trade and overseas territories: the people from the Republic of the Netherlands, the Dutch. In the Dutch language, the Dutch refer to themselves as . derives from the Dutch word , a cognate of English Nether both meaning "low", and "near the sea" (same meaning in both English and Dutch), a reference to the geographical texture of the Dutch homeland; the western portion of the North European Plain. Although not as old as , the term has been in continuous use since 1250. Names Dutch surnames (and surnames of Dutch origin) are generally easily recognizable. There are several main types of surnames in Dutch: Patronymic surnames; the name is based on the personal name of the father of the bearer. Historically this has been by far the most dominant form. These type of names fluctuated in form as the surname was not constant. If a man called Willem Janssen (William, John's son) had a son named Jacob, he would be known as Jacob Willemsen (Jacob, Williams' son). Following civil registry, the form at time of registry became permanent. Hence today many Dutch people are named after ancestors living in the early 19th century when civil registry was introduced