[onemorepassword]

Sidenote: afaik, "Van Vlack" is not a "Dutch" name.

Inappropriately adding the "Van" (which in Dutch is written with a lowercase v) is typically something Americans of Dutch origin did to make their name sound more interesting to Americans.

But for those looking to process Dutch names (or other cultures with similar construct), those names are sorted by the part behind the "van", i.e., "Jan van den Brink" (yes, it gets more complicated) will expect to find his name under "B".

[dalke]

What you are saying is correct, but mostly in a pedantic sense. In the US context, "Dutch" name would mean "of Dutch origin", and not necessarily "as used by a Dutch person." (Many people consider themselves "Irish", despite being 3 or more generations removed from the Emerald Isle.)

The New York City neighborhood of "Harlem," for example, is a Dutch name even though in Dutch it's spelled Haarlem, and the original name for the place was Nieuw Haarlem. It's more precise to say that it's the English spelling of a Dutch name, but most people find that level of precision needlessly detailed.

I have no problems asserting that "Van Vlack" is an American spelling of a Dutch name.