Du Plessis de Grenédan named it Dixmude in memory of the Marines who had died defending the Belgian city of Diksmuide.
(Michel Joseph, Duc de Bournonville in French), ( Diksmuide, Flanders, 30 June 1672 - Madrid, 2 October 1752), was a Spanish noble.
During the Battle of the Yser in the First World War, the river was deliberately flooded between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide to provide an obstacle to the advancing German Army and keep westernmost Belgium safe from German occupation.