Last summer a website that maps global surnames was launched. The project run by the University College London is designed to help people find the origins of their name and how far it may have spread.
A snap shot of how the "Smiths" of the UK are populated, the darkest area being the most densely
The site, called Public Profiler, uses eight million surnames from data collected in phone directories and electoral rolls. The site also covers an amazing 300 million people in 26 countries.
Doing a few obvious searches kicks-up some interesting results. For example, searching for “Beckham” (David, obviously!) shows that there are more Beckhams in the US than Britain.
Alternatively, going a little out there on the surnames, I search “Obama”, and was surprised to find that Japan has the highest frequency per million, at 32.69 for Obamas, followed by Spain, then France, then the United States accounting for just 0.11 FPM.
What makes the site even more interesting (excellent time waster too) is it also reveals which of the five million forenames are most closely associated with different surnames and lists the top regions and cities for each surname.
Some searches for you to try:
- Your own surname
- Your spouse’s or your own maiden name
- Your grandparents surname
- Friends with unusual surnames
Link: publicprofiler.org/worldnames
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