How to pronounce my name
If you don't bother to read my exaggeratingly long explanation below, you can just listen to a self-made recording of my name (mp3, 53.5 KB).
Stijn
People who don't speak Dutch commit all kinds of blasphemies when they attempt to pronounce my name. They promote the jn of Stijn into a separate syllable to make it sound like Sti-dzjen (wrong!). Or they try to say the German word stein with a German ei-sound and a shabby, shocking and shameful sh in the beginning; quelle horreur!
Although the Dutch ij-sound is related to the German ei, it is certainly not pronounced in the same way. In fact it sounds more like the ai in the French word maison.
A nice trick for English speaking people to get my first name right is to repeatedly say English verb stayin' (as in the Bee Gees song), and graduatly morph towards the English name Stan. About halfway between stayin' and Stan is the correct pronunciation of Stijn.
Actually the pronounciation is a little different in Flanders (where I am from) and in the Netherlands. In Belgium the i in stayin' would hardly be pronounced and my name would sound more like stay'n'. In the Netherlands i would be much more articulated. Actually, when introducing my self to English speakers, I started to pronounce my name more in the latter way, in a (usually vain) effort to make it sound different from the English name Stan and from the English word stain. I don't like people calling me Stan because it's really a different name. (When speaking Dutch there is no risk of confusion, because the a in Stan would be pronounced like the a in the English word spa.) And when people hear my name as being stain they get a dreadfully awkward frown on their faces...
The name Stijn doesn't really have a meaning. Apparently, it is derived from the name Augustine or from Constantine. It's a relatively common name in Flanders and the Netherlands. In 2007, there were 13252 persons named Stijn in Flanders, making my name the 37st most common (80th in the whole of Belgium) [source]. In the Netherlands, the name Stijn is 51st most common among childeren born between 1983 and 2006 [source].
Vermeeren
It doens't get easier when you try my family name Vermeeren. The different ways of pronouncing the vowel e in Dutch are often a source of confusion - if not madness - to foreign learners. The e is pronounced alternatingly as a long French é (such as in the English verb say when you say it slowly), as the French è (such as in the English word bed), or as a schwa (such as in heaven).
To confuse you a little more, let me add that if my last name were a normal Dutch word, pronounced in exactly the same way, it would be spelled vermeren with one e in the middle. However, the archaic spelling of my family name might actually help you to remember the correct pronunciation.
Indeed, both single e's are pronouned as schwa's, and the double e in the middle is like a long French é. Put together, it sould approximately like vr-ma[y]-run, with the y-sound of may omitted and with the stress on the middle syllable.
Meeren means lakes (the modern spelling is meren). Ver is derived from van der which means from the. It is common for a Dutch family name to start with Ver, but the name Vermeeren is quite rare. In Belgium in 1998 there where 845 Vermeerens [source]. In the Netherlands in 1993 there were 527 Vermeerens with a telephone connection [source]. Most of them live in the area around Antwerp (in the North of Belgium) and Breda (in the South of the Netherlands). Indeed, my father grew up in Meerle, between Antwerp and Breda. However, in my hometown Aarschot, more central in Belgium, my father, my two brothers and me are the only ones named Vermeeren.
There are also a few family names that are closely related to Vermeeren. Vermeersch is quite common in West-Flanders. Vermeiren is a common name around Antwerp. Vermeire is common around Ghent and Vermeir is common near Dendermonde. In the Netherlands there are also about 3000 people named Vermeer, like the famous 17th century painter. You might also come across Vermeren, with a single e in the middle, but this is even more rare than Vermeeren.