Nekkerspoel is a hamlet of Mechelen, Belgium, immediately east of the city. The name means pool of one or more Nekkers or water demons (in older Flemish necker, devil, evil spirit; from Latin niger, negr-, black), and it is assumed that in earlier centuries locals taking a shortcut trodding through the marshlands of which the Mechels Broek still remains, may have strayed off safer pathways and lost their lives.