" Ours is a time of nationalism, chauvinism, fundamentalism, intolerance, migrations, expulsions, ethnic cleansing and mass killings, in which assimilation and self-assertion have become world-wide burning issues. Personal names are therefore playing a crucial role when people seek to define themselves and others"
Charles Kormos, 1997
Note: I realise that some of the links on this page no longer work: I am trying to find alternatives (late Dec 2003)
* * *
There are 4 great traditions in name-generation:-
Source: Ehrensperger Report 2005- American Name Society
Excluding the UK, what other naming systems have you come into contact with?
-Is a Western-style surname system common in the world? (In fact: Western style family names are actually unusual)
-What other name systems can you identify? (suggested link)
-Which cultures do not have family names?
-Visit the following sites for an
indication of the main themes in the World history of surnames
link1 link2
* * *
Group Projects
| Suggested
teacher's background:- There are 2 useful online resources for the naming systems of
countries/ethnic groups. Printed sources:-
|
Investigate the following name systems, especially as to whether women's names change on marriage
Identify what kind of naming system each uses: Convert you own name into that of each system
Can naming systems be primarily divided into whether they belong to cultures that are:-
Just for fun, visit this link
for the top names of a country of your choice
(note- no indication of size
of the database, where the names are drawn from, strict frequency
order, or type of naming system)
| After I had written this section. I discovered that
naming systems are being taught as part of multi-cultural awareness in Australian Schools |
Questions
| Case study
-consequences of the decline of the number of
surnames in China (suggested reading-short article: "O Rare John Smith." Economist [England] 335, no. 7917(June 1995): 68) suggested reading: Wren, Christopher. "A Problem for the Chinese : Millions of Namesakes." New York Times (December 1984): A20.) |
* * *
| This section is indebted to the LAS website for ideas and examples |
Ask your class to analyse how their own name is constructed.
Some attempts at definitions (try this yourself
| Surname- In the Western Tradition, that part of a name that is inherited by all siblings, and is intended in turn to be passed on to offspring, and indefinitely through the male line Points to consider.
Forename-
Family Name- Patronymic - |
Consider the names :
Anthony Aloysius Hancock |
||
| Given name -lead | Given name -secondary | Surname |
| Anthony | Aloysius | Hancock |
Aziz Hamid Sabah |
||
| Given name -lead | Father's Given name -secondary | Grandfather's Given name-tertiary |
| Aziz | Hamid | Sabah |
In the western tradition,
| Western names | |
| Initials | e.g. Anthony A. Hancock or A. Aloysius Hancock |
| Omission | e.g. Anthony [ ] Hancock or [ ]Aloysius Hancock |
| Shortened & 'pet' forms | e.g. Tony Hancock, or Tone |
| Nickname
+ Surname (often rhyming with given name) |
e.g. Boney Hancock |
| Nickname alone | e.g. Monica (and any guesses how could that be derived from Hancock??) |
| Name substitution | i.e. where a person decides to use a name other than on the birth certificate |
| Non-Western Personal names | |
| Infixes: | de, vde.,
ben..."conjoined to the rest
of the name, separated from it by white space or hyphens or dropped altogether e.g. Abdalsharif ~ Abd al-Sharif ~ Abd-Al-Sharif ~ Abdal Sharif (source: LAS) |
| Cultural variations : | Imhemed/Mohamed (at least 40 ways of expressing the name Mohammed) |
| Spelling transcription | In Arabic names,
the letters K and Q can be used interchangeably so that "Qadafi" and "Kadafi" are variants of the same name |
Surnames
- Single surnames can be modified through affixes which may be
| Surname Suffixes | -aldin, -oglu, -skii/ -skaya |
| Surname Prefixes | Fitz, O', De La, |
-Double names
Different forms of the same name
Transliteration
Although an Arabic name might be written the same way in Arabic form, it can be interpreted in different ways in differing countries
| West Africa | Haj Imhemed Otmane Abderaqib | Levantine | Muhamad Usman Abdel Raqeeb | |
| East Africa | Hag Muhammad Osman Addur'ib | Iraq | Hajj Mohamed Uthman Abd Al Ragib | |
| Persian Gulf | Haj Mohd Othman Adbul Rajeeb |
The mapping of a
chinese character to the Roman alphabet can result in different
forms.
The pictogram depicting 'Chang' could be alphabetised (reflecting
Mandarin) as Chang, Zhang, Tsjang, Tchang, Jang
Other factors
The whole name can be circumscribed by:
| Titles | Dr., Rev., Haj, Sri, San, Senora |
| Qualifiers | Jr., fils, neto, sobrinho, Ph.D |
Titles do not necessarily commence a name compound
| Dr | Mohd | Ali | Hajj | Abd | el | Rahman | Jr. |
| Title | Given | Given | Title | Prefix | infix | Family Name | Qualifier |
In the Western tradition, the order of socially-expressed name is not that of the name as entered in a class register.
However, In Hungary, China and Korea, the surname comes first, before the given name. When placed in a Western context, Chinese may reverse the order to fit the Western model. If they go further, and add a Western given name, it might appear anywhere in the name order e.g. Yi Kyung Hee becomes Kathy Yi Kyung Hee
"Your name is the most important word to your ears
- change it for someone else's and you disappear from your own history. "
Have you ever met anyone
with exactly the same combination of forename and surname?
How did you react? How did you feel? Or how might you think you
would react?
Under what circumstances may an involuntary name-change occur? :-
Any others?
These are individual name-changes, but there have been mass changes
Examples of name-shifts
| Known as | Formerly | Known as | Formerly | Known as | Formerly | ||
| Marilyn Monroe | Norma Jean Baker | Woody Allen | Allen Stewart Konigsberg | George Eliot | Mary Anne Evans | ||
| Cary Grant | Archibald Leach | Lenin | Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov | Cher | Cherilyn Sarkisian | ||
| Whoopi Goldberg | Caryn Johnson | Madonna | Madonna Louise Ciccone | Tony Curtis | Bernard Schwartz |
Cultural shifts
-Feminism
and Surnames
| " When I got married in the early 1970's it was simply unknown for a working class woman not to change her name on marriage" |
| "I did not change my name when I married
because I thought it was daft. It's like having a dog for
12 years then suddenly changing its name from Rex to
Rover: very confusing, for the dog." (Source: Guardian (London) July 18, 2002) |
The above contrasting quotes suggest that
the situation has eased, in the last 30 years?
Would you agree this is so?
If you consider yourself a feminist, what pressures do you think
might still be exerted -overtly or covertly-on you not to keep
your name on marriage? By yourself as much as by others
Here are some that have been suggested
Practical
-Difficulty of persuading others that you are indeed married if retain name : constantly having to correct strangers who make assumptions
-Coping with disappointment of parents or parents-in-law; especially if children are involved
Emotional
-Taking husband's surname is seen as an overt commitment to the relationship. It emotionally signals a transition, a new beginning in your life (But then does not this also apply to the husband? He could show his commitment by changing his name instead)
-You may have had a bad relationship with your father, and wish to discard his name
-Pride in the ethnic or racial tradition in your name, or alternatively a desired to move away from that traditionAesthetic
- You prefer the sound of your husband's name
- Others find your name hard to spell or awkward to pronounce
Case studies
| Sarah is engaged. She wishes to
keep her name on marriage. Her affianced agrees that she
should not automatically assume his name. However once married, both her new in-laws (and parents) still insist on referring to Sarah as Mrs (marriedname). How can she tackle this? A baby is now due. But what will its
surname be- the mother's or father's? |
In a recent US study (Social Science Journal, 2002), it was indicated that 5% of American married women have retained their birth name, and that 25% have hyphenated it to their husbands. America also has a high rate of divorces and re-marriages. It is not uncommon to find families of mingled surnames, in which a parent's name might differ from their offspring. School authorities cope with this potential source of confusion by addressing communications to " the parents of...."
But in a society without the formal Mr. and
Mrs, how do you address
your friends' parents or
step-parents in a family of mixed surnames?
Some adults accept being called by their forenames - perhaps they
feel the forced informality will break down barriers. For others,
the novelty soon palls
| "....we become the reluctant peers of our kids and their friends, who skip into the kitchen to ask, "Hey Amy, got a soda?" I've dealt with this discomfort by asking my young friends to call me Miss Amy. This has gone over limply, at best. " Amy Dickinson (Time 2002) |
-Surnames in working life- examples of a cultural shift in the 20th century
| "In spite of grim surroundings there was an old world charm about our relations with one another. The youngest clerk was addressed as 'Mister'. Slapdash abbreviations or nicknames were never used. A clerk's Christian name was, rightly, his personal property, not to be bandied about by 'the little friends of all the world' that infest modern publicity"- R B Oram of life as a ledger clerk pre-WW1 |
| "it is strange how fairly significant social change can sometimes be brought about by relatively insignificant things. As late as 1977, when I started working for a famous London-based merchant bank, management referred to all the staff below the level of Partner only by their surnames. This benighted attitude changed almost overnight when they hired a Messenger whose name was George Darling....... I bless the memory of George to this day"- D Chandler, 2003 |
Which of these two outlooks are you more at ease with?
Role playing:
You have just got engaged. What arguments would you use to persuade your partner that you should
What compromise solutions have people found
Creating a double-barrelled surname is less usual in the UK. The reason? People are more class-conscious and feel it smacks of pretentiousness. Plus they feel that if any future offspring inherit their newly created double-barrelled surnames, those children would be teased mercilessly at school. What do you think?
Hyphenated names are not a recent phenomenon. This is a list of the most commonly hyphenated names in England and Wales. The frequencies are not great (ranging from 1,000 to 200) : but enough to suggest that these names have become hereditary.
| 1 | Lloyd-Jones | John-Baptiste | Morgan-Jones | Wynne-Jones | Rees-Jones | Hamilton-Smith |
| 2 | Ul-Haq | Lloyd-Williams | Lloyd-Davies | Lewis-Jones | Al-Ali | |
| 3 | Parry-Jones | Owusu-Ansah | Hugh-Jones | Owen-Jones | Gordon-Smith |
Welsh names predominate - especially Jones- with a smattering of Arabic names. Explanations?
The order of double-barrelled names may be affected by phonological rules. The element which comes last probably will end with a vowel or have a long last vowel (as in Jones). The element which is placed first is likely to have an initial consonant cluster and be monosyllabic. The same rules seem to apply to forenames. Try out some combinations of names with the above elements, and see which order sounds right to your ears
Afterword
"What I feel is important is that women have choices (my mother never did) and these choices can be about shaping one's own identity along a number of different axes. There was no-one more surprised [than] my husband when I made my decision [to take his name] and I quite like the idea that feminists can surprise, rather than do the predictable thing" quote to S Mills 2003
Has the various feminist campaigns had an effect on surname choice amongst the female population at large? Would your class feel this was an issue, today? Would answers vary according to culture -ethnic or social aspiration or regional influences.
Or maybe the influence of celebrity culture? Some feminist star celebrities have made the conscious choice not to retain their celebrity surname on marriage.
Those in same-sex relationships, often decide "to change their surnames on coming out as a mark that they are no longer tied to the names of their fathers" ; which names are regarded as symbolic of a patriarchal and heterosexist society.
In America, the Lucy Stone League campaigns to promote the awareness to retain one's name. Lucy Stone was an early feminist and suffragette who in 1855 commenced a campaign- with the support of her husband- to retain her maiden name. Her wedding day manifesto is of some interest.
I am indebted to Sara Mills -Sheffield Hallam University- whose recent survey of feminist academics has informed much of this section
* * *
Investigating you own surname
-Distribution and statistics
Surname
Profiler
This online database (the result of an
academic research funding bid) plots the distribution of some
50,000 (?) names in 1998 onto postcode areas : also the 1881
distribution against the same area (should postcode areas have
existed then. The cut-off frequency is 100. The accompanying
statistics need to be treated with caution - how they were
compiled needs to be understood. The classification given to
individual names does not necessarily conform to accepted
practice
Surname Atlas
A purchasable CD which plots the distribution of all
names(surnames and forenames) in the 1881 census to a finer
degree. Full tables of accompanying statistics
-Meaning/Origin
For UK names consult the following Surname Dictionaries (but treat the definitions as suggestions, rather than prescriptive):-
For European names -Hanks,or surname
dictionaries for individual countries or ethnic groups
Dictionaries of Chinese
family names, Jewish names are available. Arab name dictionaries
will just concern themselves with personal names.
* * *
Investigating surname distribution and frequency
-The macro-scale
The distribution of the leading British surnames in 1881
| SMITH | JONES | WILLIAMS |
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| TAYLOR | BROWN | DAVIES |
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| EVANS | THOMAS | WILSON |
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maps created with Surname Atlas © archersoftware
These maps illustrate the fact that even leading names are not evenly distributed. Each has its own signature. These individual distribution patterns are detectable, even in the 21st century
The graph starts near the 0; 0
point, rapidly rises to about 90; 10 and then slowly rises to
100; 100.
It is difficult to understand what is going on in this graphic
presentation, as all the activity seems to take place for low
values of Percentage of surnames.
Re-displaying the data on a semi-logarithmic scale is more revealing
graph © Ken Tucker, Carleton University
Now, one can see that the most
popular 1% of all names, accommodate over 70% of the population,
and that 90% of the surnames, from 10% to 100% -the rare surname
types- accommodate a mere 9% of the population. The distribution
of surnames is thus highly skewed.
[Actually, the above
2 graphs are for contemporary US names (thanks, Ken) - but the
slopes would be very similar for the UK. Canadian surnames are
similar: suggesting that the shape of the curve is not peculiar
to the USA but is intrinsic to at least English language surname
distributions -source
Ken Tucker]
|
Surnames prefixed with "Mac" or "Mc" were counted as one
-National surname signatures
The data can be expressed in other ways. For example, the next table is an extract from data laid out from the 1881 UK census (I took the data from the Surname Atlas CD).
A |
B |
C |
D |
| Frequency | Names | No of Names | Population of all names at this frequency |
| 422,733 | Smith | 1 | 422,733 |
| 339,185 | Jones | 1 | 339,733 |
| ...... | ..... | .... | ...... |
| 900 | Bloomer Emslie etc |
7 | 6,300 |
| 200 | Applebee Barkham etc |
48 | 9,600 |
100 |
Acker |
130 |
13,000 |
50 |
Agar |
345 |
17,250 |
25 |
A'Beckett
|
957 |
23,925 |
| 1 | lots ! |
The Viking long-boat
You will notice that early on, some names (e,g, Smith, Brown,
Williams) are the sole occupants of a frequency. If you then plot
column C (the number of names) against column A (the frequency),
then the result is as follows
The effect has been termed reminiscent of the prow of a Viking longboat
Where do you think your name would fall on this graph?
Frequency plotted against number of names |
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| Number of names at the frequency | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| unique | * | lots | |||||||||||||||||||||
| * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | * | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| * | * | * | |||||||||||||||||||||
| * | * | * | * | ||||||||||||||||||||
| * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||||||||||||||||
| * | * | * | * | * | |||||||||||||||||||
| leading | * | * | * | * | * | Smith | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
«Frequency» |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
-Occupied Frequencies
There are problems with the above .
The following method overcomes
these limitations:-
The occupied frequencies are ranked - rather than the names
themselves. Rank 1 of the occupied frequencies is taken just by
the surname 'Smith' with a population of 422,733.
| Frequency | Rank of OccupiedFrequency |
Name |
| 422,733 | 1 | Smith |
| 339,185 | 2 | Jones |
The rank is then plotted against the 'population of names at the occupied frequency' (column D above)
At a certain ranking, that frequency will suddenly be occupied by
2 surnames : the initial point of the 2nd strata is then plotted.
The process continues till all the ranks of occupied frequencies
are exhausted.
In the graph below, the bottom strata represents all those frequencies that are occupied just by a single name.
| 1881 census | 1998 Electoral Roll |
| leading.....................................................................rare | leading.....................................................................rare |
| y axis = frequency population | y axis = frequency population |
| 'Rank' of the Occupied Frequency | 'Rank' of the Occupied Frequency |
Notes
Features
Comparisons
International comparisons
This graph acts as a fingerprint to compare the surname profiles of different nations. For example, a fingerprint of contempary Canadian surnames shows the reverse of its UK and USA fingerprints, in that the maximum 'Tail' is higher than the beginning maximum. In this case, it can be said that the Canadian bearers of surname Smith are rarer than all the holders of a unique surname
This section is based solely on the
work of Ken Tucker, Research Fellow, Carleton University,
whose words I have used above
|
Investigating surnames
-The micro-scale
Small-group surname statistics
Syllable-length of UK's top 100 surnames
Source: personal count
Surname length
| Number of letters | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15+ |
| Frequency | 0.1 | 1.4 | 10.1 | 19.1 | 24.7 | 20.3 | 22.3 | 6.8 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| source: M Healey 'The lengths of surnames' Journal of the Royal Statistical Society-A (1968) | ||||||||||||||
Initial letters of surnames:-
| England | Wales | Scotland | GB | |
| % | % | % | % | |
| A | 3 | 1.7 | 2.9 | 3.0 |
| B | 11 | 6.5 | 8.0 | 10.5 |
| C | 8.1 | 4.2 | 8.4 | 7.9 |
| D | 4.3 | 7.4 | 5.3 | 4.5 |
| E | 2.1 | 5.3 | 1.0 | 2.2 |
| F | 3.5 | 1.8 | 3.9 | 3.4 |
| G | 4.9 | 4.2 | 5.4 | 4.9 |
| H | 9.2 | 8.2 | 5.5 | 8.8 |
| I | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| J | 2.8 | 11.4 | 1.7 | 3.2 |
| K | 2.1 | 1.2 | 2.5 | 2.1 |
| L | 4.1 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 4.1 |
| M | 7.5 | 6.7 | 21.1 | 8.9 |
| N | 1.7 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.6 |
| O | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1.3 |
| P | 5.7 | 6.6 | 3.3 | 5.5 |
| Q | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| R | 4.9 | 6.7 | 5.6 | 5.1 |
| S | 9.2 | 4.8 | 8.5 | 8.9 |
| T | 4.1 | 5.4 | 3.3 | 4.1 |
| U | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| V | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| W | 8.8 | 9.1 | 6.0 | 8.5 |
| X | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Y | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Z | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Source: abridged from - Percy Gray, 'Initial letters of surnames' Applied Statistics (March 1958) | ||||
The above plot of each initial letter reveals interesting peaks and troughs.
Are some initial letters more conducive to names because they can form consonant clusters for strong syllables?
or perhaps because those initial letters are rich in suffixes, or because they mimic the pattern of initial letters of given names?
As a further analysis, the individual figures have been separated and ranked in decreasing order



The graphs for England and Wales do seem to be reminiscent of a power-law relationship (?) - though not for Scotland
Initial Letters forming 50% of surnames
| England | Wales | Scotland |
| B | J | M |
| H | W | S |
| S | H | C |
| W | D | B |
| C | M | W |
| M | R | |
| P |
Probably, at a sub-national level, these patterns are not sustainable. But I am intrigued as to why they exist, and are identifiable in analyses 50 years earlier. None of the frequencies bear any relationship to the general frequencies of initial letters in the English Language, and for England, in particular, the letter B is not a predominantly fertile source of given names.
| A
survey of the New Oxford
Dictionary of English
found that the leading initial to form words was S,
which was followed at some distance in decreasing order
by P, C, D, M, and A. So surnames are not congruent with the background of words from which they are formed: but why not? |
Contemporary Spelling
Have you
noticed how the spelling of surnames differs from the noun it
derives from?
For example, Taylor rather than Tailor.
Spelling variation seems to be tolerated rather than
forbidden, in the case of surnames.
For more on this topic
* * *
Case study: Investigating a yearlist
| Banks | Davies | James | Parsons | Swann |
| Bennett | Dwight | Jones | Rhodes | Thursfield |
| Blower | Green | Jones | Rice | Welch |
| Chester | Hartland | Jordan | Robinson | Weston |
| Clarke | Hickman | Kimber | Robinson | Whitehouse |
| Collins | Hood | Lockyer | Smart | Williamson |
| Conway | Hughes | Moriaty | Smith | Young |
| Dance | Jackson | Oakley | Smith |
generated with xls2html
converter
Just a rather boring list of names : the A
Level candidates in a particular school at a particular date.
But can you guess the place or the time? Surely you cannot derive
such information merely from a list?
Analysis
| Surname | Strength |
| Blower | Warwickshire |
| Chester | Shropshire |
| Dance | Worcs-S Coast |
| Dwight | Buckinghamshire |
| Hartland | Worc-Herefordshire |
| Hickman | W Midlands to Oxfordshire |
| Hood | Norfolk-Suffolk-Yorkshire-W Midlands |
| Kimber | Wiltshire-Hampshire |
| Lockyer | Dorset |
| Moriaty | Ireland |
| Parsons | Dorset-Cornwall |
| Rhodes | Yorkshire |
| Rice | Devon |
| Swann | Cambridge..Rutland |
| Thursfield | Shropshire- N Staffs |
| Whitehouse | W Midlands |
New 'Marker' names
The results of the 2001 census identify the following groups as being most strongest represented in the following areas. Presumably, these areas now have new names that typify them, mingling with traditional names.
| Origin | National % | Concentration | % of area | Marker names????? |
| India | 2% | Leicester | 25.7% | Chandarana, Chotal, Chudasama, Ghelani, Hindocha, Kanabar, Kataria, Kotecha, Lakhani, Lodhia, Morjaria, Naik, Pancholi, Passam, Soni, Thakrar, Vadher, Vaghela |
| Pakistani | 1.4% | Bradford | 14.5% | |
| Bangladeshi | 0.5% | Tower Hamlets | 33.4% |
Can you identify other groups, areas, marker names that might be represented in your year?
Drawback
The above analysis of the year-list example is subjective. I know the answer, so am I manipulating the data to derive the answer I want? If I had taken the previous or subsequent year, would the answer have been different or ambiguous? Try this yourself.
Answers to Quiz
Marker name = Whitehouse
Location= Wolverhampton
Whitehouse
1881 distribution - |
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***If the spatial analysis of surnames interests you, then I have included a brief introduction to possible geographical techniques elsewhere on this site***
Studying New Surnames
New Immigrant Surnames - top 50 in the 1998 Electoral Rolls |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Surname | Culture | Count | Rank | Surname | Culture | Count | Rnk | Surname | Culture | Count | Rnk | Surname | Culture | Count | Rnk | Surname | Culture | Count | Rnk | ||||
| Patel | Indian | 88,110 | 43 | Bibi | Muslim | 16,348 | 404 | Sharma | Indian | 7,447 | 949 | Kumar | Indian | 4,648 | 1512 | Sidhu | Sikh* | 3,436 | 2031 | ||||
| Begum | Muslim | 43,635 | 112 | Miah | Muslim | 14,161 | 464 | Bi | Chinese | 7,416 | 992 | Chauhan | Indian | 4,571 | 1532 | Aziz | Muslim | 3,387 | 2055 | ||||
| Khan | Muslim | 43,460 | 113 | Mistry | Indian | 11,407 | 587 | Uddin | Muslim | 6,682 | 1055 | Chowdhury | Indian | 4,232 | 1654 | ||||||||