[carlosjobim]

So if we extrapolate from that, his ancestors when immigrating to America probably had to put a "last name" on the immigration form, maybe being from the Dutch town Monster or even from the now German city Münster. So maybe they put "van der Monster" as their last name = "from Monster". Which later became just "Monster".

[liamdgray]

Indeed that is what I understood to be one of the most common origins of surnames in the Western world generally. Given that, it was the intentional sarcasm in surname choice among some Dutch families in occupied Netherlands, circa 1811, that I found novel, humorous, and interesting.

The Wikipedia entry on the person in question makes it clear that his parents were born in the Netherlands and already had the Monster surname there. But since a town there has that name, I'm happy to assume that the family took the name from the town, as is very common in the West, rather than by an intentionally sarcastic choice.