29/05/2026
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My married surname is Du Plessis.
For most of my husband's life, it was just the name he signed on forms.
Then I started digging.
Du plessis in Old French means "of the thicket" — a fence woven from living branches. Strong enough to hold. Flexible enough to survive. I didn't choose that meaning. But we'll take it. 😄
Our founding ancestor, Jean Prieur du Plessis, was a doctor in Poitiers, France. When King Louis XIV outlawed Protestantism in 1685, he lost everything overnight. So he fled. Boarded a VOC ship called the Oosterlandt with his wife Madeleine and almost no luggage, and sailed for the bottom of the world.
Somewhere in the middle of that ocean, their son Charles was born. He was baptised on the ship on April 18, 1688 — weeks before they even saw the Cape.
That baby carried the Du Plessis name into South Africa. 338 years later, so do we.
Every South African surname has a story like this. A ship. A valley. A decision made under impossible pressure that led, eventually, to you.
👇 Drop your surname in the comments. Tell us what you know — or what you'd love to find out. We'll help dig.
