Tasman (name)
Tasman is a rare family name in the diaspora of Dutch people. The distribution of people with the surname varies from about 6000 in Indonesia to small numbers in Australia and New Zealand, while by 2007 only seven people with the name lived in the Netherlands. The most notable bearer of this name was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Origin. Cornelis Gerritsz Tasman of Schellinkhout was an early 17th century skipper on the 140-ton ship "De Tas", literally "the bag". At the time it was common for ship captains to adopt the name of their ships. The  family Tas or Tasman - not related to Abel Janszoon Tasman, who came from Lutjegast in Groningen - counted so many seamen in the late 1600s that their ships were divided in color: "De Zwarte Tas" ("black bag") of Jan Tasman, "De Groene Tas" ("green bag") of Pieter Janszoon Tasman, "De Roode Tas" ("red bag") of Pieter Corneliszoon Tasman and "De Witte Tas" (white bag) of Wigger Tasman. The name Tasman could also be related to the German surname Tessmann, which is made of the Slavic 'tešiti', meaning 'consolation' and the German 'Mann'. People. People with the name include: Tasman (name) Tasman