The Boers are not of Dutch Descent.

There is a common misconception that the Boer people are Dutch descendents when in reality there are comparatively few actual Dutch roots as they are an amalgamation of German / Frisian / Danish & French Huguenot origin. Uniformed folks will often point to the numerous Dutch surnames as supposed proof of the Dutch roots of the Boers while forgetting that the VOC respelled most surnames to conform to a Dutch spelling. This even affected numerous French surnames as well ie: Villion was changed to Viljoen / Jourdan was changed to Jordaan / Pinard was changed to Pienaar / Cronier was changed to Cronjé / Gauch was changed to Gouws etc. Though quite a lot of French names did retain their original spelling. For example: Joubert / Du Toit / Roux / Du Plessis / Marais / Naudé / Vivier. etc. The Boer people are not descended from any single ethnic group which was brought out to the Cape as they are a composite & amalgamation of the various groups which merged into distinct Afrikaans speaking successive groups. The impoverished folks who began to trek into the Cape frontier [ about 35 years after the VOC first arrived at the Cape ] were the ancestors of the Boer people / nation. This occurred long before the arrival of the British Colonial power.