Kerckhoff or Kerckhoffs is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

and Low German

toponymic surname A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name.

meaning "church yard" (modern Dutch ''kerkhof''). An ancestor may have lived near or worked in the church yard, or have come from a number of villages and hamlets named ''Kerkhove'' or ''Kerkhoven''.Kerkhoff
at the Database of Surnames in the Netherlands Variant forms of the surname are Kerkhof, ''Kerkhoff(s)'', Kerkhove(n), and ''Van (de) Kerkhof(f)''. Notable people with the surname include: * Auguste Kerckhoffs (1835–1903), Dutch linguist and cryptographer **

Kerckhoffs' principle Kerckhoffs's principle (also called Kerckhoffs's desideratum, assumption, axiom, doctrine or law) of cryptography was stated by Dutch-born cryptographer Auguste Kerckhoffs in the 19th century. The principle holds that a cryptosystem should be se ...

, a cryptographic principle named for him * Hermann Kerckhoff (born 1937), German-born Canadian slalom canoeist * Joseph Kerckhoffs (1789–1867), Dutch physician * Steven Kerckhoff (born 1952), American mathematician * Sylvia Kerckhoff (born 1928), American mayor of Durham, North Carolina * William G. Kerckhoff (1856–1929), American businessman ** Kerckhoff Dam, a reservoir dam in California named after him ** Kerckhoff Marine Lab, southern California marine station owned and operated by Caltech named after him

References

{{surname, Kerckhoff Dutch-language surnames Low German surnames Toponymic surnames

See also

References