Pienaar


Pienaar is a well-known Afrikaans surname, derived from the French Pinard. It was brought to South Africa in 1688 by Huguenot settlers traveling with the Dutch East India Company. The extended progenitors of the Pienaar clan are Jacques Pinard, a carpenter from Eure-et-Loir, and Esther Foucher. After Esther's death Pinard later remarried Marthe le Fèbre, a native of Paarl. An extensive genealogy of the Pienaar family in South Africa was compiled by ZJ Pienaar, and privately published as "Die Pienaars in Suid-Afrika." An updated version of the Pienaar genealogy was compiled by Christo Viljoen, whose mother was née Pienaar, as the "Pienaar Familieregister" and published by the Huguenot Society of South Africa.
Some of the descendants of the Pienaar progenitors include: