Hans Elsevier (Helschevier), van Leuven

According to the Wikipedia entry on the publishing house (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Elzevir), the family was "of Moorish origin, having taken as its surname a transliteration of al-Sifr or al-Zifr ("the cypher"), originally a trade-name applied to scribes and accountants in a culture without surnames.

According to the book "First of the Elseviers," by David Davies, Hans Elsevier's family had lived in Louvain / Leuven for generations. Louvain, formerly the center of the Netherlands wool trade, had by the 16th century declined commercially but was famous for its university, a center of humanist letters with 6,000 students and many illustrious professors. Between 1490 and 1520, the future Pope Adrian IV and Erasmus had both studied here. However, Hans, a printer, moved to Antwerp in 1563, when his son Louis was around 18, because the university had passed its zenith, and Antwerp was a stronger center of commerce.

See: LOUIS ELSEVIER.