Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch : metronymic from a short form of the female personal name Elisabeth (see Elizabeth).
- Dutch : probably also a shortened form of van Elsen, a habitational name for someone from any of various places named Elzen, for example in North Brabant, or in the Belgian provinces of Brabant and Liège. Alternatively, it may be from van den Elsen, a topographic name from the plural of els ‘alder’.