Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch (Van der Bilt) and North German : topographic name for someone living by a low hill, from Middle Low German bulte ‘mound’, ‘low hill’. De Bilt is the name of an area just northeast of Utrecht.
- Cornelius van der Bilt came from the Netherlands to Long Island, NY, in the second half of the 17th century. His descendant Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), financier and railroad and shipping magnate, was born on Staten Island, NY. He was the founder of a family of powerful financiers.