Witsen (also spelled Witzen) is the surname of a major family in the history of Amsterdam. Its most notable member was the politician and scholar Nicolaes Witsen, but many other members of the family also held leading roles in trade and politics up until the French occupation of the Netherlands in the late 18th century. It probably originated in Akersloot in Noord-Holland, where Jacob Witsz was a farmer and owned a farmhouse known as ‘de Noord’. A 1774 history of the family states that the family came from Schagerwaard, which had been known as the Witsmeer (literally the Wits lake) before it was reclaimed.