Hoorn Noord-Holland The Netherlands Port by Hendrik-Jan Kornelis

Hoorn Noord-Holland Netherlands Harbour
The origin of the place name Hoorn - old spelling variants are Horn(e) and Hoirne - is uncertain. Possibly it comes from Hornicwed. The medieval Hornic means Hoek, and wed or wedor is a medieval word for 'water'. Numerous places and neighbourhoods in the Netherlands are still called Heurne, Huurne or Horn. Hornicwed would then refer to its location in a corner of the coastline. It is sometimes said that it refers to a corner in the dike, but this raises doubts: the coast of the Zuiderzee was further from Hoorn than it is now: the Westfriese Omringdijk originally ran from the West in a straight line to Schardam, and in front of this dike there was still land outside the dike, on which the village Dampten, mentioned by Velius, was situated. This area was only flooded from 1391, when the old dike was given up, after a new dike with a corner had been laid further inland, and the first impetus for the Hoornse Hop bay came into being. Hoorn already existed then, however, as did the name. For Hornicwed we can also think of the meaning we see in our present word uithoek (corner), namely a certain (inhabited?) area at some distance, and situated at the water (wed).