Why Vanherdehaage?

After Rebecca K. moved to NYC, she asked us to check her ex-mailbox for mail that hadn't been forwarded. We did, but were worried about getting arrested. Steve said, "That's OK. We'll just give our names as Jan [Yahn] and Beatrix Vanherdehaage."

Vanderhaag is a real Dutch surname. (It means "from the Hague.") "Vanherdehaage" is taking it to a ridiculous extreme. Like "Abercrombie Throckmorton Bassington-Bassington" would be if we had chosen an English name for our nom de plume.

P.S. It has been pointed out that I show the pronunciation of Jan but not of Vanherdehaage. Since we made it up there's no official pronunciation, but we say "fon-HAIR-duh-HAGUE," where "Hague" is pronounced just like the city in the Netherlands.