Van - Definition and Overview

Van can mean:

• van (road vehicle)
• van (rail vehicle), also called a boxcar
• Turkish Van cat
• shortened form of vanguard
• the VAN method for earthquake prediction

Van is also the name of several places:

In Turkey:

• Van, town
• Van, province
• Lake Van

In the United Kingdom:

• Van, Caerphilly

In the United States:

• Van, Arkansas
• Van, Kentucky
• Van, Michigan
• Van, Missouri
• Van, Ohio
• Van, Oregon
• Van, Pennsylvania
• Van, Texas
• Van, Utah
• Van, Virginia
• Van, West Virginia

"van" is also a common Dutch word meaning "of" or "from", e.g. as in Ludwig van Beethoven or George Vancouver, equivalent to the German "von". It is always written in lower case (except at the beginning of a sentence), except for some American names (e.g. Dick Van Dyke, Martin Van Buren) or in the case where the word is not of Dutch origin, as in Vietnamese names (e.g. Duong Van Minh, Nguyen Van Thieu).