History quiz

Why is there a hyphen in his surname?

The hyphen in Rafael van-der-Vaart's surname is simply a part of his family name. Many surnames have hyphens in them, indicating that they are composed of two or more words that have been joined together. In this case, "van" and "der" are two separate Dutch words, meaning "of" and "the" respectively. The hyphen connects these two words, indicating that they belong together and should not be separated.

So, Rafael's full surname is "van-der-Vaart", with a hyphen in between "van" and "der". This is simply a part of his family name and does not indicate anything special or unusual.